
Class l£l 

Book i 

GopyrightlM 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



"Why did not somebody teach me the constellations, and 
make me at home in the starry heavens, which are always over- 
head, and which I don't half know to this day?" 

— Thomas Carlyle. 



Aries 



Taurus 



Gemini 



Cancer 



BAND OF THE ZODIAC 

Pisces 



Aquarius 




Virgo 
When the Sun is in Aries 



Capricornus 



Sagittarius 



Scorpio 



Libra 



THE STARS 
AND THEIR STORIES 

A Book for Young People 

PREPARED BY 

ALICE MARY MATLOCK GRIFFITH 



WITH PEN SKETCHES BY 

MARGARET BOROUGHS 

AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS 




NEW YORK 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 

1913 




Copyright, 1913, 

BY 

HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY 



THE QUINN A BODEN CO. PRESS 
RAHWAV, N. J. 



©CI.A346257 



PREFACE 

My purpose here is to interest the child in the stars, 
which are always with him ; to stimulate his imagination ; 
and to direct him in a pastime — the hunting out of the 
constellations and individual stars — that may become an 
enduring joy. 

With the help of the oblong charts and their duplicates, 
in which Miss Boroughs has placed the animals, he can 
learn the constellations separately and in groups, with 
the ancient mythic animals in their places ; and by using 
the round charts at the back of the book, he can see the 
sky as a whole, as it appears from our Northern Hemi- 
sphere during the different seasons, and trace out the 
smaller or less important constellations which I have not 
given. A good way to learn the configurations that form 
the constellations is to draw them. If the charts are 
held over the head, with the cardinal points in the 
proper places, the stars can be seen as they are in the 
sky ; or the same result can be obtained by one who sits 
facing the south and holds the charts with the north end 
upwards. 

If any child has as much pleasure in reading this 
book as I have had in preparing it, or obtains a broader 
outlook upon life from its perusal, all my efforts will be 
fully repaid. 

A. M. M. G. 



CONTENTS 

THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

PAGE 

The Volume of the Skies . William Habington . . 2 

My Stab .... Robert Browning . . 2 

The Stars and Their Stories ..... 3 

The Song of the Stars . William Cullen Bryant . 5 

THE TWO BEARS 

The Two Bears 11 

Ursa Major . . . Thomas Hood . .15 

Hymn to the North Star . William Cullen Bryant . 16 

THE WINGED HORSE 

The Winged Horse ....... 23 

The Chimaera . . . Nathaniel Hawthorne . . 25 

Pegasus in Pound . . Henry W. Longfellow . 38 

THE SUMMER TRIANGLE GROUP 

The Summer Triangle Group 

— The Lyre, the Eagle, the 

Swan, the Arrow, the 

Dolphin . . ... . . . .45 

The Finding of the Lyre . James Russell Lowell . 49 

Orpheus and Eurydice 

(Abridged) Alfred Noyes . . .50 

THE ROYAL FAMILY 



The Royal Family 




. 61 


The Star Club . 


. Julia E. Rogers 


. 75 


Andromeda (abridged) . 


. Charles Kingsley 
vii 


. 76 



viii CONTENTS 




THE ORION GROUP 




Orion ......... 


PAGE 

. 87 


Astrology ........ 


. 100 


Taurus .... Bayard Taylor . 


. 101 


The Lost Pleiad . . Mrs. Remans . 


. 104 


Orion .... Charles Tennyson Turner 


. 105 


Canopus .... Thomas Moore . 


. 105 


CAnopus .... Thomas Carlyle . 


. 105 


Canopus (abridged) . . Bayard Taylor . 


. 106 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 

Auriga and Gemini . . . . . . .113 

To Castor and Pollux . Homer ( Shelley's translation ) 114 

The Battle of Lake Regillus Thomas Baoington Macaulay 115 



THE TWO LIONS AND THE CRAB 
The Two Lions and the Crab 



143 



Berenice's Hair 



BERENICE'S HAIR 

. Catullus ( Martin's transla'n ) 150 



BOOTES— ARIADNE— HERCULES 

Bootes, Virgo, and Hercules . . . . .157 

Bootes and Virgo . . Aratus . . . .161 

The Three Golden Apples . Nathaniel Hawthorne . . 163 

ARIADNE'S CROWN 

The Champion of Athens . R. E. Francillon . .177 

Ariadne's Crown . . Nonnus (Mrs. Browning's 

translation) . . . 189 



CENTAURUS AND THE SOUTHERN CROSS 

Alpha Centauri and the 
Southern Cross ...... 

Constellations . . . William Cullen Bryant 



195 

196 



CONTENTS ix 

OTHER STORIES OF THE STARS 

PAGE 

Genebal Myths — Selected from 

" Birth and Growth of Myth " 

by Edward Clodd . . .201 

Darkness . . . Lord Byron . . . 208 

Death of Worlds . . Richard A. Proctor . .211 

An Ode .... Joseph Addison . . . 215 

ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 

Astronomy Through the Ages . . . . .217 
Astronomical Observatories . Edivard Everett . . 222 
"Marching on a Star" . R. Weatherhead . . 239 
The First Telescope — From 
Galileo's " Astronomical Mes- 
senger/' translated by . E. S. Carlos . . .241 

APPENDIX 

The Magnitudes ........ 253 

Stars of the First Magnitude ..... 254 

Star Names ........ 254 

Greek Alphabet ........ 257 

Index and Glossary . . . . . . .265 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Perseus — Andromeda 



-Lepus — Argo 



The Band of the Zodiac 

Dance of the Pleiades . 

Chart. Ursa Major and Ursa Minor 

The Two Bears .... 

Chart. Pegasus .... 

The Winged Horse 

Chart. Lyra — Aquila — Cygnus — Sagitta — Delphinus 

The Lyre, the Eagle, the Swan, the Arrow, the Dolphin 

Ganymede . 

Orpheus and Eurydice . 

Chart. Cepheus — Cassiopeia 

The Royal Family 

Perseus and Andromeda 

Chart. Orion — Taurus — Sirius 

The Orion Group . 

Chart. The Pleiades 

Photograph of the Pleiades 

Chart. Auriga and Gemini 

Auriga and Gemini 

Chart. Leo — Leo Minor — Cancer 

The Two Lions and the Crab . 

Chart. Bootes — Ariadne's Crown — Hercules 

Bootes, Ariadne's Crown, Hercules . 

Hercules and the Golden Apples 

Theseus and the Minotaur 

Chart. Centaurus and the Southern Cross 

Interior of Yerkes Observatory 

Compound Reference Chart . 

Charts for Different Months . 



Frontispiece V 
Facing 2 'y< 



9 
20 
21 
42 
43 
48 
54 
58 
5 9 



Facing 
Facing 



Facing 



72- 

84 

85 

99 

Facing 104 v 

110 

111 

140 

141 

154 

155 

Facing 172 

Facing 188 

. 194 

Facing 234 

. 258 

259-264 



THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 



THE VOLUME OF THE SKIES 

When I survey the bright 

Celestial sphere, 
So rich with jewels hung, that night 
Doth like an Ethiop bride appear; 
My soul her wings doth spread, 

And heavenward flies, 
The Almighty's mysteries to read 
In the large volumes of the skies. 

— William Habington. 



MY STAR 

All that I know 

Of a certain star 
Is, it can throw 

(Like the angled spar) 
Now a dart of red, 

Now a dart of blue; 
Till my friends have said 
They would fain see, too, 
My star that dartles the red and the blue! 
Then it stops like a bird; like a flower, hangs furled: 
They must solace themselves with the Saturn above it. 
What matter to me if their star is a world? 

Mine has opened its soul to me; therefore I love it. 

— Browning. 




< > 



fa .5 

O 9 



ft £ 



THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Silently one by one, in the infinite meadows of heaven, 
Blossomed the lovely stars, the forget-me-nots of the angels. 

— Longfellow : Evangeline. 

The stars that twinkle so beautifully on any clear 
night, and that look so small, are really all of them 
great suns like our own. Most of them, in fact, are 
larger than our sun. If they were not, we could not 
see them, they are so far away from us. If you could 
stand on the nearest fixed star, and look back to our 
sun, you would see it as one of the very smallest of all 
the stars. And then this Earth, that seems so big to us, 
and Venus, and Mars, and Jupiter, and the other planets, 
you could not see at all. It is possible, indeed it is almost 
probable, that every star has a family of planets about 
it, just as our sun has ; perhaps, too, the light and heat 
it sends out nourish life on its planets, just as the light 
and heat of our sun make possible the life around us 
here on the Earth. 

From the beginning, men have looked at the stars, 
and wondered what they are and what they mean. Are 
they scattered about in haphazard fashion, without any 
order at all? So far as we have yet been able to 
learn, they really are. But if you will watch a little 
while, you will see that the brighter ones seem to be 
grouped together, so that you can make pictures with 
them. On the plains of Asia, or in rainless Egypt, cen- 



4 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

turies before Christ — nobody knows just when — men be- 
gan to see such pictures in the heavens. As they saw 
these pictures, they began to tell stories of how they 
came to be up there. Each picture, as they saw it, is 
called a constellation, which simply means a cluster of 
stars; and each story has for its hero some king or 
demigod, some beast or bird, who, it was supposed, was, 
after his death, transported to the sky and changed to a 
group of stars, to remind men of all times of his glory 
and his achievements. 

Of course, to you and me, there is nothing real about 
the figures they saw; it is only in our imaginations that 
we can see the Lion, the Swan, and the others. Yet we 
ought to learn to recognize the constellations, in order 
to be able to find our way among the stars. It is an easy 
matter to learn them, and to be able to recognize them 
whenever we see them. To be sure, not all the stars can 
be seen at any one time. Some of them go down in the 
west as others rise in the east. And, indeed, if you will 
watch at the same hour for three or four weeks in suc- 
cession, you will observe that the sky changes slightly 
from night to night. But by noting them through the 
seasons, we can, in the course of a year, see all but those 
so far to the south that they appear only to people living 
near the equator, or on the other side of it. And as we 
look upon the constellations in their procession, each will 
remind us of its own story. 

Not only the stories told in the long ago are inter- 
esting. Those told by modern men of science, though 
of a very different kind, are quite as interesting. These 
latter-day stories tell the adventures, not of earth-born 
heroes who were changed into stars, but of the stars 



THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 5 

themselves, what they are made of, and how they move 
among their celestial neighbors. 

In the pages that follow you will find charts that will 
enable you to identify the constellations quite readily 
for yourself. You will also find stories of both kinds, 
those of the ages long ago, told under summer sky, or 
beside winter fire, to explain the constellations that men 
noticed then, even as you and I still see them ; and those 
that the astronomers of to-day tell us, after they have 
scanned the face of the heavens with the instruments 
they have invented to aid them. And, finally, you will 
read verses into which the poets have woven their 
thoughts of the stars and their stories. 

THE SONG OF THE STARS 

When the radiant morn of creation broke, 

And the world in the smile of God awoke, 

And the empty realms of darkness and death 

Were moved through their depths by his mighty breath, 

And orbs of beauty and spheres of flame 

From the void abyss by myriads came — 

In the joy of youth as they darted away, 

Through the widening wastes of space to play, 

Their silver voices in chorus rang, 

And this was the song the bright ones sang : 

11 Away, away, through the wide, wide sky, 
The fair blue fields that before us lie — 
Each sun with the worlds that round him roll, 
Each planet, poised on her turning pole ; 
With her isles of green, and her clouds of white, 
And her waters that lie like fluid light. 



6 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

" For the source of glory uncovers his face, 
And the brightness o'erflows unbounded space, 
And we drink as we go to the luminous tides 
In our ruddy air and our blooming sides: 
Lo, yonder the living splendors play ; 
Away, on our joyous path, away! 

" Look, look, through our glittering ranks afar, 

In the infinite azure, star after star, 

How they brighten and bloom as they swiftly pass ! 

How the verdure runs o 'er each rolling mass ! 

And the path of the gentle winds is seen, 

Where the small waves dance, and the young woods lean. 

" And see, where the brighter day-beams pour, 
How the rainbows hang in the sunny shower; 
And the morn and eve, with their pomp of hues, 
Shift o 'er the bright planets and shed their dews ; 
And 'twixt them both, o'er the teeming ground, 
With her shadowy cone the night goes round ! 

1 ' Away, away ! in our blossoming bowers, 

In the soft airs wrapping these spheres of ours, 

In the seas and fountains that shine with morn, 

See, Love is brooding, and Life is born, 

And breathing myriads are breaking from night, 

To rejoice, like us, in motion and light. 

11 Grlide on in your beauty, ye youthful spheres, 

To weave the dance that measures the years ; 

Glide on, in the glory and gladness sent 

To the furthest wall of the firmament — 

The boundless visible smile of Him 

To the veil of whose brow your lamps are dim. ,? 

— William Cullen Bryant. 



THE TWO BEARS 

URSA MAJOR AND URSA MINOR 

These two constellations whirl so closely to the pole that 
in our northern latitudes we do not see them set. Each has 
a group of stars resembling a dipper; and so they are often 
called the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper. 

In the ancient pictures of the Great Bear the legs are much 
longer than shown here; the two hind legs stretch away to 
the Lesser Lion, and the left front paw touches the two stars 
that lie just in front of it here; consequently the figure with 
its long tail and long legs has small likeness to a bear. 



\ 



Polaris 



Ursa Minor— 
\The Little Bear 





BenetnaschTv 



Cor Caroli • 



\ 



\ 



Onward the kindred Bears with footsteps rude 
Dance 'round the pole, pursuing and pursued. 



THE TWO BEARS 

CALLISTO AND AECAS 

The Greeks, if we are to judge from their stories, evi- 
dently felt that the friendship of the gods was as likely 
to bring trouble as their enmity. It proved so in the 
hard experience of Callisto. She was a beautiful maiden 
whom Jupiter saw and admired. He showed her many a 
favor, and visited her often; but he endeavored to keep 
his visits a secret from his wife, Juno, for she was jealous- 
hearted. The goddess, however, learned of the friend- 
ship, and she made up her mind to take a severe revenge 
upon the human maiden. 

Callisto had a baby boy, but not even the love of her 
son could keep her from going a-hunting. While Cal- 
listo was eagerly following the chase one day, she had the 
bad luck to meet Juno. Now, Juno was the most 
majestic of all the goddesses, as, to be sure, was entirely 
befitting in the Queen of Olympus. The mere sight of 
her must have inspired awe in Callisto. And when the 
poor lady saw the divine eyebrows straighten into the 
severity of a frown, and the regal, dark eyes, that Homer 
loves to describe, glow with the fires of jealousy, she must 
have felt terror as well as awe. Poor, poor creature, her 
days of happiness were done. With never a pang of 
pity, the goddess commanded that she change from a 
woman to a bear. And lo ! the thing was done. 

Long, long might the babe wait for his mother, and 

11 



12 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

weep because she returned not. How was he to know, 
or his nurse or his grandfather to know, that far in the 
lonely forest wandered a she-bear, with the frightened 
heart of a woman in her breast ? All his tears could not 
change that hairy breast back to the white bosom that 
had pillowed his baby head so tenderly, could not trans- 
form rough paws back to the soft hands that had held 
him so lovingly. And the bear must have suffered, too. 
For if Juno was unkind enough to wish for revenge at 
all, she was doubtless unkind enough not to permit the 
bear to forget that she had been a woman and a mother. 
I have sometimes wondered if, when, late in the night, 
the moon shone quietly and sleepily over hillside and 
town, the bear-mother did not creep up as close to her 
old home as she dared, and stand looking sadly at house- 
tops and deserted streets, and long for a sight of her 
little one ; only to steal unsatisfied away in the gray, cold 
dawn, back to her caves and secret recesses. The story 
does not say, but I think she must have done so. The 
pain in her heart, I trow, was very great, like that in the 
heart of the father in Matthew Arnold's " The For- 
saken Merman," a poem I like to read to my children, 
and one that you will like, too, if you will ask your 
teacher to find it and read it to you. 

Young people forget quickly. Callisto's little Areas, 
if he remembered his mother at all, thought of her as 
dead. He grew through infancy and well into boyhood, 
active and strong. Like his mother, he became a great 
hunter. 

Then, when he was fifteen years old, came another 
unlucky day. He was hunting. Suddenly he perceived 
near him a bear. Neither had heard the other, and 
both were surprised. At last, he and his mother had 



THE TWO BEARS 13 

met again. It is possible she saw in him a resemblance 
to what she had been, or to his father, and recognized 
him. It is certain that he did not perceive his mother 
in the shaggy form that stood affrighted before him. 
For a moment they gazed one upon the other. She had 
no power to make him understand. And he gave her no 
time to flee away; but, lifting his bow (bravely, as he 
would have thought, if he had had time to think about 
it at all) , he was about to send an arrow piercing through 
her heart. 

But the friendship of the gods does not bring only 
evil. Jupiter had not forgotten the maiden he had once 
loved so kindly. He could not reunite mother and son 
by restoring Callisto to human form, for one god may 
not directly undo what another god has done. He could, 
nevertheless, do what was still better, since eternal fame 
is better than a long life, even if life be filled with hap- 
piness. What he did do, was, first, to change Areas 
into a bear, too, and then to transfer both mother and 
son as stars to the sky. There you will see them 
as the constellations of the Greater and the Lesser 
Bears. 

One would have thought that Juno would rest satisfied, 
now that the woman she had feared as a rival had be- 
come a group of stars, and could not possibly again give 
her cause for jealousy. But the vindictiveness in her 
heart was even yet unsated. If her hated rival was to be 
placed among the never-fading stars, her revenge must 
likewise be eternal. She sought out her brother, Nep- 
tune, god of the sea, told him her story, and begged him, 
as a favor to her, to refuse to permit the mother and 
son ever to enter his realm. Neptune granted her re- 
quest; and consequently the Great Bear and the Little 



14 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Bear never sink into the ocean, " the baths of all the 
western stars." 

THE TWO BEARS 

Change as the stars may from night to night, these 
two groups, the Great Bear and the Lesser Bear, can be 
seen from any place in the northern latitudes at any 
time of the year. We will commence our search by 
finding them. They are among the easiest to identify, 
too. Every boy and girl knows the Big Dipper. If you 
look to the north, you can hardly fail to see it the first 
thing — seven bright stars set in the shape of a big tin 
dipper. Four stars make the bowl, and three the 
handle. Six of these stars are of the second magnitude 
and one of the third. In the olden times, the Big 
Dipper was called by some people David^s Chariot, the 
four stars in the bowl representing the wheels, and the 
three others the horses. Still other people have named 
them the Seven Oxen, and others again, the Plowshare. 
In England, Charles's Wain is the popular name. But 
the name most commonly used is the Great Bear, the 
stars in the bowl being in the bear's body, and those in 
the handle being in his tail, as you may see from the 
chart. 

One of the stars in the Great Bear is quite interesting, 
because it offers an opportunity to see whether you have 
good, strong eyes or not. The middle star of the three 
in the tail is named Mizar, and it has a very small com- 
panion, ealled Alcor, ' ' the Test, ' ' because it is used as a 
test of vision, since only a good eye can see it without 
the help of a telescope. 

The two stars that form the outer edge of the bowl 



THE TWO BEARS 15 

of the Big Dipper are called the " Pointers," because 
they point to the North Star. When we have found the 
North Star, we have also found the Lesser Bear, because 
the North Star is the most important star in this group. 
The Lesser Bear is like the Great Bear in shape, but is 
smaller. It is sometimes called the Little Dipper. The 
North Star is the end star of the Lesser Bear 's tail, and 
the end of the dipper handle ; and the four stars of the 
bowl are in his body. The North Star itself is fre- 
quently called Polaris, because a line passed through 
the earth's poles, and extended into the sky, would come 
very near it. 

Within the last few years it has been discovered that 
Polaris is whirling very rapidly around a dark com- 
panion, and that both together are coming towards us 
at a tremendous speed. How this is known you can 
read in " Astronomy Through the Ages," which comes 
later in this book. 

With a knowledge of where the Little and Big Dipper 
are, and by the aid of the charts, you can easily find 
all the other constellations in their due times and sea- 
sons. 

URSA MAJOR 

Scholar: 

I marvel why (seeing she hath the form of a beare) 
her tail should be so long. 
Master: 

Imagine that Jupiter, fearing to come too nigh unto 
her teeth, layde holde on her tayle, and thereby drewe 
her up into the heavens ; so that she of herself being very 
weightie, and the distance from the earth to the heavens 



16 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

very great, there was great likelihood that her taile must 
stretch. Other reason have I none. 

— Thomas Hood. 



HYMN TO THE NORTH STAR 

The sad and solemn night 
Hath yet her multitude of cheerful fires; 

The glorious host of light 
Walk the dark hemisphere till she retires ; 
All through her silent watches, gliding slow, 
Her constellations come, and climb the heavens, and go. 

Day, too, hath many a star 
To grace his gorgeous reign, as bright as they: 

Through the blue fields afar, 
Unseen, they follow in his flaming way : 
Many a bright lingerer, as the eve grows dim, 
Tells what a radiant troop arose and set with him. 

And thou dost see them rise, 
Star of the Pole ! and thou dost see them set. 

Alone, in thy cold skies, 
Thou keep 'st thy old unmoving station yet, 
Nor join'st the dances of that glittering train, 
Nor dipp'st thy virgin orb in the blue western main. 

There, at morn's rosy birth, 
Thou lookest meekly through the kindling air, 

And eve, that round the earth 
Chases the day, beholds thee watching there; 
There noontide finds thee, and the hour that calls 
The shapes of polar flame to scale heaven's azure walls. 



THE TWO BEARS 17 

Alike, beneath thine eye, 
The deeds of darkness and of light are done ; 

High toward the starlit sky 
Towns blaze, the smoke of battle blots the sun, 
The night storm on a thousand hills is loud, 
And the strong wind of day doth mingle sea and cloud. 

On thy unaltering blaze 
The half -wrecked mariner, his compass lost, 

Fixes his steady gaze, 
And steers, undoubting, to the friendly coast; 
And they who stray in perilous wastes, by night, 
Are glad when thou dost shine to guide their footsteps 
right. 

And, therefore, bards of old, 
Sages and hermits of the solemn wood, 

Did in thy beams behold 
A beauteous type of that unchanging good, 
That bright eternal beacon, by whose ray 
The voyager of time should shape his heedful way. 

— William Cullen Bryant. 



THE WINGED HORSE 

PEGASUS 

The Bears can be seen every night in the year and all night 
long. Not so, with most of the constellations. As the earth 
changes its place in the course of the year, some of them 
sink out of sight, not to be seen again for months. Each 
season has its own constellations. All through the autumn, 
the one called Pegasus, the wonderful Winged Horse, can 
be seen flying across the sky. He commences these flights 
early in September, and the last we see of him is in mid-winter, 
when he flies down in the west after the setting sun. 



Pegasus— 
The Horse 




Reheat 



Alpke* at 



Algeiiib 



He's not four-footed; with no hinder parts, 
And shown but half, rises the sacred Horse. 



THE WINGED HORSE 

If you will extend the line that passes from the 
Pointers to Polaris, you will observe four bright stars 
(three of them of the second magnitude and one of the 
third) that form an almost perfect square, known as 
the Square of Pegasus. One of the stars lies in An- 
dromeda as well as Pegasus. The Square, large as it is, 
is by no means all of Pegasus. It is in the body of the 
Horse, and forms only about one-third of the whole 
constellation. The Horse's head stretches off to the 
west, where there shines a bright star in its nostril. 

The Greeks told a pretty tale of the birth and exploits 
of Pegasus. JWhen Perseus had slain Medusa — a story 
which is to be told later on — and was flying back home, 
carrying her head carefully behind him, some drops of 
her blood fell into the sea ; and Neptune, the god of the 
sea, because he had been in love with Medusa when she 
was still beautiful, took these drops and some foam of 
the sea, and changed them into a beautiful white horse, 
which rose from the crest of a wave and flew to Olympus 
for the pleasure of the gods. Very few mortals ever 
rode this winged steed. There are some who say that 
Perseus and Andromeda were borne by it up to heaven. 

The most famous story, however, is about Bellero- 
phon's ride. When he was a boy, Bellerophon acci- 
dentally killed his brother. Home became hateful to 
him, and so he wandered away. He lived for a time at 
the court of King Proetus, but he was falsely accused by 

23 



24 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Queen Anteia, and Proetus planned his death. He gave 
him a sealed letter to take to the king of Lycia. When 
the Lycian king opened it, he found it was a request 
to put Bellerophon to death. The king of Lycia tried 
to obey the request, though it was against his will. He 
told Bellerophon to go and slay the Chimaera, a terrible 
monster with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a dragon's 
tail. 

Many heroes had attacked the Chimaera, but none had 
escaped alive. Bellerophon, in great dejection, was 
comforted by Minerva, who appeared before him and 
gave him a golden bridle, with directions how and when 
to use it. 

The hero placed himself in hiding beside a spring to 
which Pegasus sometimes came to drink. When the 
winged steed came and stooped to the water, Bellerophon 
leaped upon its back. He got the golden bit between 
the horse's teeth, and immediately it became perfectly 
gentle, though it had never been ridden by a mortal 
before. Pegasus bore Bellerophon to where the 
Chimaera was, and together they bore down upon the 
monster, and, of course, Bellerophon slew it. 

After other adventures, the hero returned to Lycia, 
and married the king's lovely daughter. But his heart 
became full of pride; he thought himself equal to the 
gods, and determined to mount Pegasus and ride up to 
Olympus. He might have succeeded, but Jupiter, 
angered by his presumption, sent a gadfly, which stung 
the horse so painfully that it reared and plunged until 
Bellerophon was dismounted and thrown to the earth 
far below. After that adventure Pegasus was never lent 
to a mortal again. 

The story of the destruction of the Chimaera has 



THE WINGED HORSE 25 

been told at length by our great American writer, 
Nathaniel Hawthorne, in his beautiful manner, a part of 
whose story I must quote for you, changing just three or 
four words. 

THE CHIMAERA 

Bellerophon's heart began to throb! He gazed 
keenly upward, but could not see the winged creature, 
whether bird or horse ; because just then it had plunged 
into the fleecy depths of a summer cloud. It was but 
a moment, however, before the object reappeared, sink- 
ing lightly down out of the cloud, although still at a 
vast distance from the earth. Bellerophon shrank back, 
so that he was hidden among the thick shrubbery which 
grew all around the fountain. Not that he was afraid of 
any harm, but he dreaded lest, if Pegasus caught a 
glimpse of him, he would fly far away, and alight in 
some inaccessible mountain-top. For it was really the 
winged horse. After he had expected him so long, he 
was coming to quench his thirst with the water of Pirene. 

Nearer and nearer came the aerial wonder, flying in 
great circles, as you may have seen a dove when about 
to alight. Downward came Pegasus, in those wide, 
sweeping circles, which grew narrower, and narrower 
still, as he gradually approached the earth. The nigher 
the view of him, the more beautiful he was, and the 
more marvelous the sweep of his silvery wings. At 
last, with so light a pressure as hardly to bend the 
grass about the fountain, or imprint a hoof : tramp in the 
sand of its margin, he alighted, and, stooping his wild 
head, began to drink. He drew in the water, with long 
and pleasant sighs, and tranquil pauses of enjoyment; 



26 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

and then another draught, and another, and another. 
For, nowhere in the world, or up among the clouds, did 
Pegasus love any water as he loved this of Pirene. And 
when his thirst was slaked, he cropped a few of the 
honey-blossoms of the clover, delicately tasting them, 
but not caring to make a hearty meal, because the 
herbage, just beneath the clouds, on the lofty sides of 
Mount Helicon, suited his palate better than this 
ordinary grass. 

After thus drinking to his heart's content, and, in his 
dainty fashion, condescending to take a little food, the 
winged horse began to caper to and fro, and dance, as 
it were, out of mere idleness and sport. There never 
was a more playful creature made than this very 
Pegasus. So there he frisked, in a way that it delights 
me to think about, fluttering his great wings as lightly 
as ever did a linnet, and running little races, half on 
earth and half in air, and which I know not whether 
to call a flight or a gallop. When a creature is per- 
fectly able to fly, he sometimes chooses to run, just for 
the pastime of the thing; and so did Pegasus, although 
it cost him some little trouble to keep his hoofs so near 
the ground. Bellerophon, meanwhile, peeped forth from 
the shrubbery, and thought that never was any sight so 
beautiful as this, nor ever a horse's eyes so wild and 
spirited as those of Pegasus. It seemed a sin to think 
of bridling him and riding on his back. 

Once or twice Pegasus stopped, and snuffed the air, 
pricking up his ears, tossing his head, and turning it 
on all sides, as if he partly suspected some mischief or 
other. Seeing nothing, however, and hearing no sound, 
he soon began his antics again. 

At length, — not that he was weary, but only idle and 



THE WINGED HORSE 27 

luxurious, — Pegasus folded his wings, and lay down on 
the soft green turf. But, being too full of aerial life to 
remain quiet for many moments together, he soon rolled 
over on his back, with his four slender legs in the air. 
It was beautiful to see him, this one solitary creature, 
whose mate had never been created, but who needed no 
companion, and, living a great many hundred years, 
was as happy as the centuries were long. The more he 
did such things as mortal horses are accustomed to do, 
the less earthly and the more wonderful he seemed. 
Bellerophon almost held his breath, partly from a de- 
lightful awe, but still more because he dreaded lest the 
slightest stir or murmur should send him up, with the 
speed of an arrow-flight, into the farthest blue of the 
sky. 

Finally, when he had had enough of rolling over and 
over, Pegasus turned himself about, and, indolently, like 
any other horse, put out his legs, in order to rise from 
the ground; and Bellerophon, who had guessed that he 
would do so, darted suddenly from the thicket and 
leaped astride of his back. 

Yes, there he sat, on the back of the winged horse ! 

But what a bound did Pegasus make, when, for the 
first time, he felt the weight of a mortal man upon his 
loins! A bound, indeed! Before he had time to draw 
a breath, Bellerophon found himself five hundred feet 
aloft, and still shooting upward, while the winged horse 
snorted and trembled with terror and anger. Upward 
he went, up, up, up, until he plunged into the cold misty 
bosom of a cloud, at which, only a little while before, 
Bellerophon had been gazing, and fancying it a very 
pleasant spot. Then, again, out of the heart of the 
cloud, Pegasus shot down like a thunderbolt, as if he 



28 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

meant to dash both himself and his rider headlong 
against a rock. Then he went through about a thou- 
sand of the wildest caprioles that had ever been per- 
formed either by a bird or a horse. 

I cannot tell you half that he did. He skimmed 
straight forward, and sideways, and backward. He 
reared himself erect, with his forelegs on a wreath of 
mist, and his hindlegs on nothing at all. He flung out 
his heels behind, and put down his head between his 
legs, with his wings pointing right upward. At about 
two miles' height above the earth, he turned a somerset, 
so that Bellerophon 's heels were where his head should 
have been, and he seemed to look down into the sky, in- 
stead of up. He twisted his head about, and, looking 
Bellerophon in the face, with fire flashing from his eyes, 
made a terrible attempt to bite him. He fluttered his 
pinions so wildly that one of the silver feathers was 
shaken out, and, floating earthward, was picked up by a 
child, who kept it as long as he lived, in memory of 
Pegasus and Bellerophon. 

But the latter (who, as you may judge, was as good a 
horseman as ever galloped) had been watching his op- 
portunity, and at last clapped the golden bit of the en- 
chanted bridle between the winged steed's jaws. No 
sooner was this done than Pegasus became as manageable 
as if he had taken food, all his life, out of Bellerophon 's 
hand. To speak what I really feel, it was almost a sad- 
ness to see so wild a creature grow suddenly so tame. 
And Pegasus seemed to feel it so, likewise. He looked 
round to Bellerophon, with the tears in his beautiful 
eyes, instead of the fire that so recently flashed from 
them. But when Bellerophon patted his head, and 
spoke a few authoritative, yet kind and soothing, words, 



THE WINGED HORSE 29 

another look came into the eyes of Pegasus ; for he was 
glad at heart, after so many lonely centuries, to have 
found a companion and a master. 

Thus it always is with winged horses, and with all 
such wild and solitary creatures. If you can catch 
and overcome them, it is the surest way to win their love. 

While Pegasus had been doing his utmost to shake 
Bellerophon off his back, he had flown a very long 
distance; and they had come within sight of a lofty 
mountain by the time the bit was in his mouth. Bel- 
lerophon had seen this mountain before, and knew it to 
be Helicon, on the summit of which was the winged 
horse's abode. Thither (after looking gently into his 
rider's face, as if to ask leave) Pegasus now flew, and, 
alighting, waited patiently until Bellerophon should 
please to dismount. The young man, accordingly, 
leaped from his steed's back, but still held him fast 
by the bridle. Meeting his eyes, however, he was so 
affected by the gentleness of his aspect and by the 
thought of the free life which Pegasus had heretofore 
lived, that he could not bear to keep him a prisoner, if 
he really desired his liberty. 

Obeying this generous impulse he slipped the en- 
chanted bridle off the head of Pegasus, and took the bit 
from his mouth. 

" Leave me, Pegasus! " said he. " Either leave me, 
or love me." 

In an instant the winged horse shot almost out of 
sight, soaring straight upward from the summit of 
Mount Helicon. Being long after sunset, it was now 
twilight on the mountain-top, and dusky evening over 
all the country round about. But Pegasus flew so high 
that he overtook the departed day, and was bathed in 



30 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

the upper radiance of the sun. Ascending higher and 
higher, he looked like a bright speck, and, at last, 
could no longer be seen in the hollow waste of the sky. 
And Bellerophon was afraid that he should never be- 
hold him more. But, while he was lamenting his own 
folly, the bright speck reappeared, and drew nearer and 
nearer, until it descended lower than the sunshine ; and, 
behold, Pegasus had come back! After this trial there 
was no more fear of the winged horse's making his 
escape. He and Bellerophon were friends, and put 
loving faith in one another. 

That night they lay down and slept together, with 
Bellerophon 's arm about the neck of Pegasus, not as a 
caution, but for kindness. And they awoke at peep of 
day, and bade one another good-morning, each in his 
own language. 

In this manner, Bellerophon and the wondrous steed 
spent several days, and grew better acquainted and 
fonder of each other all the time. They went on long 
aerial journeys, and sometimes ascended so high that the 
earth looked hardly bigger than — the moon. They vis- 
ited distant countries, and amazed the inhabitants, who 
thought that the beautiful young man, on the back of 
the winged horse, must have come down out of the sky. 
A thousand miles a day was no more than an easy space 
for the fleet Pegasus to pass over. Bellerophon was de- 
lighted with this kind of life, and would have liked 
nothing better than to live always in the same way, aloft 
in the clear atmosphere; for it was always sunny 
weather up there, however cheerless and rainy it might 
be in the lower region. But he could not forget the 
horrible Chimaera, which he had promised King Iobates 
to slay. So, at last, when he had become well accus- 



THE WINGED HORSE 31 

tomed to feats of horsemanship in the air, and could 
manage Pegasus with the least motion of his hand, and 
had taught him to obey his voice, he determined to at- 
tempt the performance of this perilous adventure. 

At daybreak, therefore, as soon as he unclosed his 
eyes, he gently pinched the winged horse's ear, in order 
to arouse him. Pegasus immediately started from the 
ground, and pranced about a quarter of a mile aloft, 
and made a grand sweep around the mountain top, by 
way of showing that he was wide awake, and ready for 
any kind of an excursion. During the whole of this lit- 
tle flight, he uttered a loud, brisk, and melodious neigh, 
and finally came down at Bellerophon 's side, as lightly 
as ever you saw a sparrow hop upon a twig. 

" Well done, dear Pegasus! well done, my sky-skim- 
mer! " cried Bellerophon, fondly stroking the horse's 
neck. " And now, my fleet and beautiful friend, we 
must break our fast. To-day we are to fight the ter- 
rible Chimaera." 

As soon as they had eaten their morning meal, and 
drank some sparkling water from a spring called Hip- 
pocrene, Pegasus held out his head, of his own accord, 
so that his master might put on the bridle. Then, with 
a great many playful leaps and airy caperings, he 
showed his impatience to be gone; while Bellerophon 
was girding on his sword, and hanging his shield about 
his neck, and preparing himself for battle. When 
everything was ready, the rider mounted, and (as was 
his custom, when going a long distance) ascended five 
miles perpendicularly, so as the better to see Whither he 
was directing his course. He then turned the head of 
Pegasus towards the east, and set out for Lycia. In 
their flight they overtook an eagle, and came so nigh 



32 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

him, before he could get out of their way, that Bellero- 
phon might easily have caught him by the leg. Hasten- 
ing onward at this rate, it was still early in the fore- 
noon when they beheld the lofty mountains of Lycia, 
with their deep and shaggy valleys. If Bellerophon had 
been told truly, it was in one of those dismal valleys that 
the hideous Chimaera had taken up its abode. 

Being now so near their journey's end, the winged 
horse gradually descended with his rider ; and they took 
advantage of some clouds that were floating over the 
mountain-tops, in order to conceal themselves. 

Hovering on the upper surface of a cloud, and peep- 
ing over its edge, Bellerophon had a pretty distinct view 
of the mountainous part of Lycia, and could look into 
all its shadowy vales at once. At first there appeared 
to be nothing remarkable. It was a wild, savage, and 
rocky tract of high and precipitous hills. In the more 
level part of the country, there were the ruins of houses 
that had been burnt, and, here and there, the carcasses 
of dead cattle, strewn about the pastures where they 
had been feeding. 

11 The Chimaera must have done this mischief," 
thought Bellerophon. " But where can the monster 
be? " 

As I have already said, there was nothing remark- 
able to be detected, at first sight, in any of the valleys 
and dells that lay among the precipitous heights of the 
mountain. Nothing at all ; unless, indeed, it were three 
spires of black smoke, which issued from what seemed 
to be the mouth of a cavern, and clambered sullenly 
into the atmosphere. Before reaching the mountain-top, 
these three black smoke-wreaths mingled themselves 



THE WINGED HORSE 33 

into one. The cavern was almost directly beneath the 
winged horse and his rider, at the distance of about a 
thousand feet. The smoke, as it crept heavily upward, 
had an ugly, sulphurous, stifling scent, which caused 
Pegasus to snort and Bellerophon to sneeze. So dis- 
agreeable was it to the marvelous steed (who was ac- 
customed to breathe only the purest air), that he waved 
his wings, and shot half a mile out of the range of this 
offensive vapor. 

But, on looking behind him, Bellerophon saw some- 
thing that induced him first to draw the bridle, and 
then to turn Pegasus about. He made a sign, which 
the winged horse understood, and sunk slowly through 
the air, until his hoofs were scarcely more than a man's 
height above the rocky bottom of the valley. In front, 
as far off as you could throw a stone, was the cavern's 
mouth, with the three smoke-wreaths oozing out of it. 
And what else did Bellerophon behold there? 

There seemed to be a heap of strange and terrible 
creatures curled up within the cavern. Their bodies lay 
so close together that Bellerophon could not distinguish 
them apart; but, judging by their heads, one of these 
creatures was a huge snake, the second a fierce lion, and 
the third an ugly goat. The lion and the goat were 
asleep; the snake was broad awake, and kept staring 
around him with a great pair of fiery eyes. But — and 
this was the most wonderful part of the matter — the 
three spires of smoke evidently issued from the nostrils 
of these three heads! So strange was the spectacle 
that, though Bellerophon had been all along expecting 
it, the truth did not immediately occur to him, that 
here was the terrible three-headed Chimaera. He had 



34 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

found out the Chimaera's cavern. The snake, the lion, 
and the goat, as he supposed them to be, were not three 
separate creatures, but one monster ! 

The wicked, hateful thing! Slumbering, as two- 
thirds of it were, it still held, in its abominable claws, 
the remnant of an unfortunate lamb, — or possibly (but 
I hate to think so) it was a dear little boy, — which its 
three mouths had been gnawing, before two of them fell 
asleep ! 

All at once, Bellerophon started as from a dream, and 
knew it to be the Chimaera. Pegasus seemed to know 
it, at the same instant, and sent forth a neigh, that 
sounded like the call of a trumpet to battle. At this 
sound the three heads reared themselves erect, and 
belched out great flashes of flame. Before Bellerophon 
had time to consider what to do next, the monster flung 
itself out of the cavern and sprung straight towards 
him, with its immense claws extended, and its snaky 
tail twisting itself venomously behind. If Pegasus had 
not been as nimble as a bird, both he and his rider 
would have been overthrown by the Chimaera's head- 
long rush, and thus the battle have been ended before 
it was well begun. But the winged horse was not to be 
caught so. In the twinkling of an eye he was up aloft, 
half-way to the clouds, snorting with anger. He shud- 
dered, too, not with affright, but with utter disgust at 
the loathsomeness of this poisonous thing with three 
heads. 

The Chimaera, on the other hand, raised itself up so 
as to stand absolutely on the tip -end of its tail, with 
its talons pawing fiercely in the air, and its three heads 
spluttering fire at Pegasus and his rider. My stars, 
how it roared, and hissed, and bellowed! Bellerophon, 



THE WINGED HORSE 35 

meanwhile, was fitting his shield on his arm, and draw- 
ing his sword. 

" Now, my beloved Pegasus," he whispered in the 
winged horse's ear, " thou must help me to slay this 
insufferable monster; or else thou shalt fly back to thy 
solitary mountain-peak without thy friend Bellerophon. 
For either the Chimaera dies, or its three mouths shall 
gnaw this head of mine, which has slumbered upon thy 
neck! " 

Pegasus whinnied, and, turning back his head, rubbed 
his nose tenderly against his rider's cheek. It was his 
way of telling him that, though he had wings and was 
an immortal horse, yet he would perish, rather than 
leave Bellerophon behind. 

1 ' I thank you, Pegasus, ' ' answered Bellerophon. 
1 ' Now, then, let us make a dash at the monster ! ' ' 

Uttering these words, he shook the bridle; and Peg- 
asus darted down aslant, as swift as the flight of an 
arrow, right towards the Chimaera 's threefold head, 
which, all this time, was poking itself as high as it 
could into the air. As he came within arm's-length, 
Bellerophon made a cut at the monster, but was carried 
onward by his steed before he could see whether the 
blow had been successful. Pegasus continued his course, 
but soon wheeled round, at about the same distance from 
the Chimaera as before. Bellerophon then perceived 
that he had cut the goat's head of the monster almost 
off, so that it dangled downward by the skin, and seemed 
quite dead. 

But, to make amends, the snake's head and the lion's 
head had taken all the fierceness of the dead one into 
themselves, and spit flame, and hissed, and roared, with 
a vast deal more fury than before. 



36 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

' ' Never mind, my brave Pegasus ! ' ' cried Bellero- 
phon. " With another stroke like that, we will stop 
either its hissing or its roaring. " 

And again he shook the bridle. Dashing aslantwise, 
as before, the winged horse made another arrow-flight 
towards the Chimaera, and Bellerophon aimed another 
downright stroke at one of the two remaining heads, as 
he shot by. But this time, neither he nor Pegasus 
escaped so well as at first. With one of its claws, the 
Chimaera had given the young man a deep scratch in 
his shoulder, and had slightly damaged the left wing 
of the flying steed with the other. On his part Bellero- 
phon had mortally wounded the lion's head of the mon- 
ster, insomuch that it now hung downward, with its fire 
almost extinguished, and sending out gasps of thick 
black smoke. The snake's head, however (which was 
the only one left now) was twice as fierce and venomous 
as ever before. It belched forth shoots of fire five hun- 
dred yards long, and emitted hisses so loud, so harsh, 
and so ear-piercing, that King Iobates heard them, fifty 
miles off, and trembled till the throne shook under him. 

" Well-a-day! " thought the poor king; " the Chi- 
maera is certainly coming to devour me!" 

Meanwhile Pegasus had again paused in the air, and 
neighed angrily, while sparkles of a pure crystal flame 
darted out of his eyes. How unlike the lurid fire of the 
Chimaera! The aerial steed's spirit was all aroused, 
and so was that of Bellerophon. 

" Dost thou bleed, my immortal horse? " cried the 
young man, caring less for his own hurt than for the 
anguish of this glorious creature, that ought never to 
have tasted pain. " The execrable Chimaera shall pay 
for this mischief with his last head! " 



THE WINGED HORSE 37 

Then he shook the bridle, shouted loudly, and guided 
Pegasus not aslantwise as before, but straight at the 
monster 's hideous front. So rapid was the onset, that it 
seemed but a dazzle and a flash before Bellerophon was 
at close gripes with his enemy. 

The Chimaera, by this time, after losing its second 
head, had got into a red-hot passion of pain and ram- 
pant rage. It so flounced about, half on earth and 
partly in the air, that it was impossible to say which 
element it rested upon. It opened its snake- jaws to 
such an abominable width that Pegasus might almost, 
I was going to say, have flown right down its throat, 
wings outspread, rider and all. At their approach it 
shot out a tremendous blast of its fiery breath and en- 
veloped Bellerophon and his steed in a perfect at- 
mosphere of flame, singeing the wings of Pegasus, 
scorching off one whole side of the young man's golden 
ringlets, and making them both far hotter than was 
comfortable, from head to foot. 

But this was nothing to what followed. 

When the airy rush of the winged horse had brought 
him within the distance of a hundred yards, the Chi- 
maera gave a spring, and flung its awkward, huge, ven- 
omous, and utterly detestable carcass right upon poor 
Pegasus, clung round him with might and main, and 
tied up its snaky tail into a knot! Up flew the aerial 
steed, higher, higher, higher, above the mountain-peaks, 
above the clouds, and almost out of sight of the solid 
earth. But still the earth-born monster kept its hold, 
and was borne upward along with the creature of light 
and air. Bellerophon, meanwhile turning about, found 
himself face to face with the ugly grimness of the 
Chimaera 's visage, and could only avoid being scorched 



38 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

to death, or bitten right in twain by holding up his 
shield. Over the upper edge of the shield, he looked 
sternly into the savage eyes of the monster. 

But the Chimaera was so mad and wild with pain, 
that it did not guard itself so well as might else have 
been the ease. Perhaps, after all, the best way to fight 
a Chimaera is by getting as close to it as you can. In 
its efforts to stick its horrible iron claws into its enemy, 
the creature left its own breast quite exposed; and per- 
ceiving this, Bellerophon thrust his sword up to the 
hilt into its cruel heart. Immediately the snaky tail 
untied its knot. The monster let go its hold of Pegasus, 
and fell from that vast height downward; while the fire 
within its bosom, instead of being put out, burned 
fiercer than ever, and quickly began to consume the 
dead carcass. Thus it fell out of the sky, all aflame, 
and (it being nightfall before it reached the earth) was 
mistaken for a shooting-star or a comet. But, at early 
sunrise, some cottagers were going to their day's labor, 
and saw, to their astonishment, that several acres of 
ground were strewn with black ashes. In the middle of 
a field, there was a heap of whitened bones a great deal 
higher than a haystack. Nothing else was ever seen of 
the dreadful Chimaera ! 

— Nathaniel Hawthorne. 



PEGASUS IN POUND 

Once into a quiet village, 

Without haste and without heed, 
In the golden prime of morning, 

Strayed the poet's winged steed. 



THE WINGED HORSE 39 

It was Autumn, and incessant 
Piped the quails from shocks and sheaves, 

And, like living coals, the apples 
Burned among the withering leaves. 

Loud the clamorous bell was ringing 

From its belfry gaunt and grim; 
'Twas the daily call to labor, 

Not a triumph meant for him. 

Not the less he saw the landscape, 

In its gleaming vapor veiled ; 
Not the less he breathed the odors 

That the dying leaves exhaled. 

Thus, upon the village common, 

By the school-boys he was found; 
And the wise men, in their wisdom, 

Put him straightway into pound. 

Then the somber village crier, 

Ringing loud his brazen bell, 
Wandered down the street proclaiming 

There was an estray to sell. 

And the curious country people, 

Rich and poor, and young and old, 
Came in haste to see this wondrous 

Winged steed, with mane of gold. 

Thus the day passed, and the evening 

Fell, with vapors cold and dim ; 
But it brought no food nor shelter, 

Brought no straw nor stall for him. 



40 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Patiently, and still expectant, 

Looked he through the wooden bars, 

Saw the moon rise o'er the landscape, 
Saw the tranquil, patient stars; 

Till at length the bell at midnight 
Sounded from its dark abode, 

And, from out a neighboring farm-yard, 
Loud the cock Alectryon crowed. 

Then, with nostrils wide distended, 
Breaking from his iron chain, 

And unfolding far his pinions, 
To those stars he soared again. 

On the morrow, when the village 

Woke to all its toil and care, 
Lo ! the strange steed had departed, 

And they knew not when nor where. 

But they found, upon the greensward 
Where his struggling hoofs had trod, 

Pure and bright, a fountain flowing 
From the hoof -marks in the sod. 

Prom that hour, the fount unfailing 
Gladdens the whole region round, 

Strengthening all who drink its waters, 
While it soothes them with its sound. 

— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 



THE SUMMER TRIANGLE GROUP 

LYRA— AQUILA— CYGNUS— SAGITTA— DELPHINUS 

These constellations belong to the summer and early fall, 
but if we have not spent too much time with Pegasus we 
can find them high in the west in October. Some of them 
can still be seen early in the evening, hanging low down in 
the west, as late as December. If you have missed them in 
the fall, you can look forward to finding them next summer. 

Vega is the brightest star in Lyra, Altair in Aquila, and 
Deneb in Cygnus. The triangle made by the three stars, with 
Altair as the apex, is an almost perfect isosceles triangle. 

The Eagle, in the old charts, is represented as if seen from 
below, and is clasping the boy with his sharp claws. The de- 
sign of the present drawing was suggested by a modern mural 
painting in the Library of Congress, 




/ 



Cygnus-The Swan' 

L 

Vega 

Lyra- 
J/jThe Lyre 



N& 



N Dolphin ^^ 



riw 



Altair 




Aqnila-The Eagle 



Everything that heard him play, 
Even the billows of the sea, 
Hung their heads, and then lay by. 

v — Shakespeare. 

I 



THE SUMMER TRIANGLE GROUP 

THE LYRE — THE EAGLE — THE SWAN — THE ARROW — THE 
DOLPHIN 

Mercury (or Hermes), son of Jupiter, and one of the 
twelve gods of Olympus, was god of merchants and of 
thieves ; and he was wondrously fond of teasing. On the 
very day he was born, he escaped from his mother, stole 
the Cows of the Sun, and drove them off to a cave, 
where he ate two of them and nid the rest. The next day, 
while he was playing on the sea-shore, he found the shell 
of a tortoise. He seized upon it for a plaything, bored 
holes along the edges, stretched strings across it, and 
found he could make music with it. But the lyre, which 
he had invented in this way, was not to be his for long. 
The cattle • he , had stolen were sacred to Apollo, the 
god of the sun, who soon discovered the thief, and was 
not to be appeased until Mercury gave him the lyre 
as a peace-offering. Apollo was god of music, as well as 
of the sun, and was delighted with the new instrument. 

Down on the earth lived Orpheus, a beautiful musi- 
cian whom Apollo loved. As a mark of his special 
favor, Apollo lent the lyre to Orpheus, who then was 
able to make music so exquisite that not only men and 
birds, but even the trees and the very rocks, were 
charmed. But Orpheus fell in love with Eurydice, and 
became so absorbed in his passion he forgot his music. 
Then Apollo was vexed, and bade a serpent go and sting 

45 



46 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Eurydice to death. Orpheus knew that the dead de- 
parted to dwell among the shades in Hades. He took 
the lyre, and went in search of Eurydice. When he 
came before the ruler of the lower regions, then did 

Orpheus sing 
Such notes as, warbled to the string, 
Drew iron tears down Pluto's cheek, 
And made Hell grant what love did seek. 

— Milton: II Penseroso. 

He played such sweet music that Pluto consented to 
allow Eurydice to follow her lover back to the upper 
world if Orpheus would not turn to look upon her before 
they emerged from Hades. Alas! love was too strong. 
Orpheus did look back, and his half-regained Eurydice 
was lost to him. After the death of the disconsolate 
Orpheus, Apollo took back the lyre, and placed it 
among the stars. 

I saw, with its celestial keys, 
Its chords of air, its frets of fire, 
The Samian's great iEolian lyre, 
Rising thro' all its sevenfold bars 
From earth unto the fixed stars. 

— Longfellow: The Occultation of Orion. 

Lyra is a small constellation, but it is easily found. 
You have only to look back of the bowl of the Little 
Dipper, and there you will see it shining conspicuously. 
Its brightest star is Vega, a star of the first magnitude, 
one of the three brightest in the Northern Hemisphere. 
Its blue-white rays are wonderfully brilliant. The 
actual size of Vega must be very great, probably a hun- 



THE SUMMER TRIANGLE GROUP 47 

dred times that of our sun. Two small stars (between 
the fourth and the fifth magnitude) form a tiny triangle 
with Vega. And one of these stars and three other little 
ones make up a quadrangle. 

Not far from Lyra is Aquila, the Eagle, concerning 
which the following story is told. Hebe was long the 
cup-bearer for the gods, but once she tripped and fell. 
After this unlucky accident she was no longer con- 
sidered fitted for her office, and had to resign it. Jupiter, 
having surveyed mankind and chosen the son of a king 
of Troy as the most beautiful, despatched his sacred 
bird, the eagle, to fetch the youth to heaven. 

And godlike Ganymede, most beautiful 
Of men, the gods beheld, and caught him up 
To heaven, so beautiful was he, to pour 
The wine of Jove, and ever dwell with them. 

— Homer (Bryant's translation). 

For his services the eagle was placed among the con- 
stellations. 

To find Aquila, you follow a line from the Little Dip- 
per to Lyra, and then on about as far the other side of 
Lyra. Its brightest star (first magnitude) is Altair, in 
the neck or body of the Eagle. Altair has two attend- 
ants, one on each side, and both quite close. One is of 
the third magnitude, the other of the fourth. 

Another neighbor of Lyra is Cygnus, which is also 
associated with Apollo, though more remotely than Lyra. 
Apollo had a son, Phaethon, who persuaded his father to 
allow him to drive the chariot of the sun around the 
world for one day. But the horses were too strong for 
Phaethon to manage ; they ran away, and approached so 
close to earth that everything was about to burn up. 



48 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Jupiter saw what was happening, and hurled one of his 
bolts of thunder at the young charioteer, who fell head- 
long into the river Eridanus. Cygnus, the intimate 
friend of Phaethon, gathered all the charred remains of , 
the body he could find, and gave them burial. In his 
grief he kept diving into the river, to find still other 
fragments. In this dismal task he looked so like a 
swan, which is always diving mournfully, that the gods 
out of pity turned him into a swan, and transferred him 
to the sky. 

Cygnus is between Lyra and Pegasus, and is more 
commonly called the Northern Cross. Deneb, the bright- 
est star of the group, is not quite of the first magnitude, 
but is classed with the first magnitude stars. In the 
beak of the Swan — or the foot of the Cross — is Albireo, 
which a good pair of field glasses reveals as a double star. 
The smallest telescope shows immediately that one of 
the doublets is of the third magnitude, and the other of 
the seventh. The larger is a light yellow in color, and 
the smaller a deep blue. The blue of the smaller star 
is so pronounced, and the contrast between the two is so 
remarkable, that Albireo is one of the favorite show ob- 
jects to the possessor of a small telescope. 

About half-way between Altair and Albireo is a tiny 
constellation of the fourth and fifth magnitude stars 
named the Arrow, or Sagitta. 

There lies an Arrow — from what bow it fell 
Near to the flying Swan, no Poets tell. 

Between Altair and Pegasus lies the remarkably beau- 
tiful and tiny constellation of the Dolphin — more often 
called Job's Coffin. 



THE SUMMER TRIANGLE GROUP 49 

With four fair stars he decks the summer skies, 
Sparkling and soft as maiden's beauteous eyes. 

The Dolphin owes its place among the stars to its kind- 
ness of heart and its love of music. Arion, the famous 
lyric poet and musician, had gone to Italy and gained 
great wealth by his profession. When he was return- 
ing to Lesbos, his native island, the seamen resolved to 
murder him that they might have his riches. He per- 
suaded them to allow him to play his lute once more. 
He sang so sweetly that all the fish were enraptured and 
gathered around the boat. Then Arion cast himself 
overboard to escape the seamen, and a dolphin took him 
on his back and brought him safely to land. Arion 
went to the king, and told him of his escape. The first 
time the sailors came to land, they were crucified. None 
of the Dolphin 's stars are very bright ones ; two are of 
the third magnitude, and three of the fourth; the rest 
are all smaller. 

THE FINDING OF THE LYRE 

There lay upon the ocean's shore 
What once a tortoise served to cover; 
A year or more, with rush and roar, 
The surf had rolled it over, 
Had played with it, and flung it by, 
As wind and weather might decide it, 
Then tossed it high where sand-drifts dry- 
Cheap burial might provide it. 

It rested there to bleach or tan, 

The rains had soaked, the suns had burned it; 

With many a ban the fisherman 



50 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Had stumbled o'er and spurned it; 
And there the fisher-girl would stay, 
Conjecturing with her brother 
How in their play the poor estray 
Might serve some use or other. 

So there it lay, through wet and dry 

As empty as the last new sonnet, 

Till by and by came Mercury, 

And, having mused upon it, 

" Why, here," cried he, " the thing of things 

In shape, material, and dimension ! 

Give it but strings, and, lo, it sings, 

A wonderful invention ! ' ' 

So said, so done ; the chords he strained, 
And, as his fingers o'er them hovered, 
The shell disdained a soul had gained, 
The lyre had been discovered. 
empty world ! that round us lies, 
Dead shell, of soul and thought forsaken, 
Brought we but eyes like Mercury's 
In thee what songs should waken ! 

— James Russell Lowell. 



ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE * 

Cloud upon cloud, the purple pinewoods clung to the 
rich Arcadian mountains, 
Holy-sweet as a column of incense, where Eurydice 
roamed and sung : 

* Copyright, 1908, by The Macmillan Company. 



THE SUMMER TRIANGLE GROUP 51 

All the hues of the gates of heaven flashed from the 
white enchanted fountains 
Where in the flowery glades of the forests the rivers 
that sing to Arcadia sprung. 

Down to the valley she came, for far and far below in 
the dreaming meadows 
Pleaded ever the Voice of voices, calling his love by 
her golden name; 
So she arose from her home in the hills, and down 
through the blossoms that danced with their 
shadows, 
Out of the blue of the dreaming distance, down to the 
heart of her lover she came. 

Lost in his new desire 

He dreamed away the hours ; 

His lyre 
Lay buried in the flowers: 

To whom the King of Heaven, 
Apollo, lord of light, 

Had given 
Beauty and love and might: 

Yet in his dream's desire 
He drowsed away the hours: 

His lyre 
Lay buried in the flowers. 

Then in his wrath arose 
Apollo, lord of light, 

That shows 
The wrong deed from the right j 



52 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

How all good things await 
The soul that pays the price 

To Fate 
By equal sacrifice; 

And how on him that sleeps 
For less than labor's sake, 

There creeps, 
Uncharmed, the Pythian snake. 

Was not the menace indeed more silent ? Ah, what care 
for labor and sorrow? 
Gods in the meadows of moly and amaranth surely 
might envy their deep sweet bed 
Here where the butterflies troubled the lilies of peace, 
and took no thought for the morrow, 
And golden-girdled bees made feast as over the lotus 
the soft sun spread. 

Nearer, nearer the menace glided, out of the gorgeous 
gloom around them, 
Out of the poppy-haunted shadows deep in the heart 
of the purple brake ; 
Till through the hush and the heat as they lay, and their 
own sweet listless dreams enwound them, — 
Mailed and mottled with hues of the grape-bloom, sud- 
denly, quietly, glided the snake. 

Subtle as jealousy, supple as falsehood, diamond-headed 
and cruel as pleasure, 
Coil by coil he lengthened and glided, straight to the 
fragrant curve of her throat : 



THE SUMMER TRIANGLE GROUP 53 

There in the print of the last of the kisses that still 
glowed red from the sweet long pressure, 
Fierce as famine and swift as lightning over the glit- 
tering lyre he smote. 

And over the cold white body of love and delight 
Orpheus arose in the terrible storm of his grief, 

With quivering up-clutched hands, deadly and white, 
And his whole soul wavered and shook like a wind- 
swept leaf: 

As a leaf that beats on a mountain, his spirit in vain 
Assaulted his doom and beat on the Gates of Death : 
Then prone with his arms o'er the lyre he sobbed out 
his pain, 
And the tense chords faintly gave voice to the pulse 
of his breath. 

And he heard it and rose, once again, with the lyre in 
his hand, 
And smote out the cry that his white-lipped sorrow 
denied : 
And the grief 's mad ecstasy swept o 'er the summer-sweet 
land, 
And gathered the tears of all Time in the rush of its 
tide. 

There was never a love forsaken or faith forsworn, 
There was never a cry for the living or moan for the 
slain, 
But was voiced in that great consummation of song ; ay, 
and borne 
To storm on the Gates of the land whence none 
cometh again. 



54 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Transcending the barriers of earth, comprehending them 
all, 
He followed the soul of his loss with the night in his 
eyes; 
And the portals lay bare to him there ; and he heard the 
faint call 
Of his love o'er the rabble that wails by the river of 
sighs. 

Oh then, through the soul of the Singer, a pity so vast 
Mixed with his anguish that, smiting anew on his lyre, 

He caught up the sorrows of hell in his utterance at last, 
Comprehending the need of them all in his own great 
desire. 

On through the deserts of hell she came; for over the 
fierce and frozen meadows 
Pleaded ever the Voice of voices, calling his love by 
her golden name; 
So she arose from her grave in the darkness, and up 
through the wailing fires and shadows, 
On by chasm and cliff and cavern, out of the horrors 
of death she came. 

Then had she followed him, then had he won her, striking 
a chord that should echo for ever, 
Had he been steadfast only a little, nor paused in the 
great transcendent song ; 
But ere they had won to the glory of day, he came to 
the brink of the flaming river 
And ceased, to look on his love a moment, a little mo- 
ment, and overlong. 



THE SUMMER TRIANGLE GROUP 55 

He gazed: he ceased to smite 
The golden-chorded lyre: 

Delight 
Consumed his heart with fire. 

Though in that deadly land 
His task was but half-done, 

His hand 
Drooped, and the fight half -won. 

Out of his hand the lyre 
Suddenly slipped and fell, 

The fire 
Acclaimed it into hell. 

The night grew dark again: 
There came a bitter cry 

Of pain, 
Oh Love, once more I die! 

And lo, the earth-dawn broke, 
And like a wraith she fled: 

He woke 
Alone: his love was dead. 

Though the golden lute of Orpheus gathered the splen- 
dors of earth and heaven, 
All the golden greenwood notes and all the chimes of 
the changing sea, 
Old men over the fires of winter murmur again that he 
was not given 
The steadfast heart divine to rule that infinite freedom 
of harmony. 



56 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Therefore he failed, say they ; but we, that have no wis- 
dom, can only remember 
How through the purple perfumed pinewoods white 
Eurydice roamed and sung: 
How through the whispering gold of the wheat, where 
the poppy burned like a crimson ember, 
Down to the valley in beauty she came, and under her 
feet the flowers upsprung. 

— Alfred Noyes. 



THE ROYAL FAMILY 

CEPHEUS— CASSIOPEIA 
PERSEUS— ANDROMEDA 

The four constellations of the Royal Family rise with 
Pegasus or directly after him. They can be found in the 
east in October, and the most important ones are overhead 
in December. In northern latitudes Cepheus and Cassiopeia 
never set. Andromeda is low down in the west in February, 
with Perseus following close behind. 




\ 



\ 



• t 


\Cassiopeial 


/ 

/ 
/ 


\ \ 


v7 


\ 


/ t\ 


. \ \ 




xs \ 




' \\ 



Cepheus 



Polaris 




Long, I trow, 
Thou wilt not seek her in the nightly sky, 
So bright her head, so bright 
Her shoulders, feet, and girdle. 
Yet even there she has her arms extended, 
And shackled, even in heaven; uplifted, 
Outspread eternally, are those fair hands. 

— Aratus. 



THE ROYAL FAMILY 

On the opposite side of Polaris from the Great Dipper 
are the four constellations of the Eoyal Family: King 
Cepheus, with his wife, Queen Cassiopeia ; their daugh- 
ter, the Princess Andromeda, the heroine of the legend; 
and the Princess's lover, Perseus, the golden-haired 
hero. None of the four is especially bright, and all ex- 
cept Cassiopeia are hard to find ; but with the aid of the 
chart you can soon locate them. 

Cepheus, the dimmest, with no star much brighter 
than the third magnitude, is just back of the Lesser 
Bear. 

Next is Cassiopeia, five of whose stars form a W that 
lies open to the Pole Star, and is about as far from 
Polaris on one side as the Pointers are on the other. 
This W is also called Cassiopeia's Chair, and there the 
Queen sits throned in heaven. A line commencing at 
the star that joins the handle and the bowl of the Big 
Dipper and drawn through Polaris, passes through Cas- 
siopeia, and, when extended on, through Andromeda. 

The constellation of Andromeda shares one of its 
brightest stars, named Alpherat, with the constellation 
of Pegasus, the Winged Horse. It is in Andromeda's 
head and the Horse 's body. The other bright stars, two 
of the second magnitude and one of the third, stretch 
along back of the "W. By using your chart, and start- 
ing with Alpherat, you can soon find the Princess, with 
her hands chained high in the heavens, as Perseus found 

61 



62 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

her with her hands chained high to the rock by the sea- 
shore. 

Below Andromeda is her lover Perseus, watching 
eternally, and ever ready to protect her against any 
harm that may threaten, his uplifted sword in one hand 
and the dread Medusa 's head in the other. 

The most interesting of all the stars of the Royal 
Family is in Perseus. A line from the end star of the 
Lesser Bear through Polaris passes near it. Its name is 
Algol, but it is often called the " Demon Star " (Algol 
is Arabic for " the demon "), because it is in the head 
of Medusa, and winks or changes its brightness. It is 
one of the variable stars. Most of the time it is a star 
of the second magnitude; but every two days, twenty 
hours, and forty-nine minutes its light begins to fade, 
and three or four hours later it has lost three-fourths of 
its brightness, dwindling to nearly a fourth magnitude 
star. Then it begins to grow brighter, and in three or 
four hours has regained its former brilliancy. These 
changes can be detected with the naked eye, and in 
former times greatly puzzled everybody. In recent 
times we have learned that a great dark body is circling 
around Algol, as the moon circles around the earth; 
only it completes its trip in a little less than three days. 
In making its circuit it passes between Algol and the 
earth, and partially obliterates Algol's light. 

Now for the myth-story, which is more romantic than 
that of any other persons among the stars. The main 
reason, undoubtedly, why the members of the Royal 
Family were given a place among the stars was the love 
affair between Perseus and Andromeda. Previous to 
the time, however, when Perseus found and loved An- 



THE ROYAL FAMILY 63 

dromeda, his life was filled with adventure. Misfortune 
had marked him for her own even before his birth. 



PERSEUS AND ANDROMEDA 

Acrisius, king of Argos, was rich and powerful, but 
he was not a particularly happy monarch. How could 
he be? He surely had sufficient cause for unhappiness 
in the message of Fate which he received through an 
oracle : ' ' Acrisius shall be slain by the hand of his own 
grandson." His only child was his daughter, Danae. 
They had looked forward to a happy marriage for her, 
and a prosperous life for her children. Now the king 's 
one desire was to prevent her from being married. He 
had a tower built of brass, shut his daughter up in it, 
and placed guards around it, with dire threats of death 
if they failed in their watch. With all these precau- 
tions he hoped to cheat fate. But the will of the gods 
may not be frustrated. All the king's devices were of 
no avail. His soldiers might keep sleepless watch 
through day and through night, but their efforts could 
not have been less successful if they had striven to pre- 
vent the sun from showering his golden beams upon the 
tower. 

When Acrisius learned that Danae had a baby son, he 
was much perturbed and very wroth. Still imagining 
that he might escape the decrees of fate, he did what I 
think was a craven thing. He sought to save his own 
life through the death of another person. That that 
other person was his own daughter will not make his 
deed any the pleasanter in your estimation. He deter- 
mined that both his daughter and her son must perish. 
But even his heart was not frightened enough and cruel 



&4 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

enough to make him willing to stain his hands with the 
blood of his own family. He hit upon a scheme that 
appeared to be as effective as simple. 

1 ' Make me a large cask, ' ' he ordered his carpenter. 

" Line it with rugs and shawls," he commanded his 
upholsterer; for, you see, he was willing to make death 
as pleasant as he could. 

" Place Danae and her child within the cask," he 
bade the soldiers of his guard. " Take them in a 
boat far out from the shore, and toss them into the 
sea." 

He thought certainly in this way they must perish, 
and his own precious life would be prolonged. He had 
yet to learn that, though the gods work slowly, they work 
their will surely. 

His behests were obeyed, of course. For he was a 
powerful king, even though in his madness a cruel one. 
The cask was thrown to the waves. Hour after hour it 
rose and fell with them monotonously. I suspect the 
only thing that saved the mother from insanity was the 
need of caring for her babe. By what miracle they were 
preserved alive I am sure I do not know. I only tell the 
story to you as it was told to me. For days they floated 
on, the sport of sea and wind. No, not quite sport, 
either. All the while, a superhuman will was directing 
their course. The pitying gods caused the cask to be 
washed ashore on the island of Seriphus. There a 
kindly fisherman broke it open, and rescued the cast- 
aways; and again Danae felt the good solid earth be- 
neath her feet. He led her to his hut, and he and his 
good wife provided her with dry, warm clothes and nour- 
ishing food, and they kept her there until she had 
quite recovered from the shock of her terrifying experi- 



THE ROYAL FAMILY 65 

ence. Then they heard from her the story of all that 
had happened. 

This fisherman, humble as he seemed, was brother to 
the king of the island. In the course of time, news came 
quite naturally to the king of the guests in his brother's 
cottage, and of their marvelous sea-voyage. When he 
learned that Danae was the daughter of a king, he made 
haste to invite her to come and be a guest in the royal 
palace. Since a king 's invitation is much the same thing 
as a command, Danae* could not well refuse. I have no 
doubt, however, that she would greatly have preferred 
to remain in the obscure home of the kind fisherman. 
But off to the palace she and her son must go. 

The years passed on. In the palace of King Poly- 
dectes Danae still lived, with her son, to whom she had 
given the name Perseus. He had grown to be a young 
man, and had received the education of a prince of the 
royal blood. In athletic feats and in the management 
of weapons of chase and war he surpassed all his com- 
panions. Now he was to find that the protection of 
Polydectes brought hardship with it. The king fell in 
love with Danae, and wished to marry her. But she did 
not love him, and would not consent. He was about to 
compel her to obey him, when Perseus interfered, say- 
ing any man who annoyed his mother must reckon with 
him. Polydectes, balked in this manner, laid a plan to 
get rid of Perseus. 

1 ' If you are such a splendidly brave fellow, ' ' said he 
to Perseus, " you ought to demonstrate it for us. Let 
me tell you what you do," he continued tauntingly. 
" You go and slay the Gorgon Medusa, and bring her 
head back here. Then, perhaps, we will grant that you 
have the right to raise your voice when men are present. ' ' 



66 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Perseus knew very little about what he was under- 
taking, but he could not pause in the face of such a 
challenge as that. 

1 ' Very well, I '11 do it ! " he replied, with the rash 
assurance of youth. " Swear to me that for a year 
and a day you will secure my mother from all annoy- 
ance, and within that time I will return and bring Me- 
dusa's head with me." 

Then the king lightly made oath, for he was well 
assured in his mind that long before the twelve months 
were gone Perseus would be removed from his path for- 
ever. 

Perseus was at a loss, indeed. He knew that Medusa 
was one of the Gorgons, but how was he to find her, and 
what armor would protect him or what sword smite off 
her head? He went to bed that night very much 
troubled, you may be sure. As he slept, he had a 
dream, — that is, he thought it was a dream, but it was 
really a vision. He dreamed, as it seemed to him, that 
the eternal gods came down around his couch, and spoke 
to him, and comforted him. First, there was Mercury, 
the messenger of the gods, who addressed him, saying: 

" What! you are not afraid, are you, Perseus? " 

And Perseus would have answered in indignation, but 
the power of speech seemed to be gone from him. Mer- 
cury evidently expected no reply, for without waiting he 
went on : 

" You are now a man, and it is time you should be 
doing the deeds of a man. ' ' 

Again the heart of Perseus stirred within him, and he 
would have been glad to say, if he could have spoken : 

" Well, bright stranger, I should just like to know 
what you call what I have been doing for the last sev- 



THE ROYAL FAMILY 67 

eral years past? I certainly have not been doing the 
sweeping or cooking or spinning around here. And 
there is not a man in all this island who can run faster, 
or hit harder, or shoot straight er than I can ! " 

Mercury apparently thought he had done enough 
teasing, for he went on in soberer style : 

" The gods, who have watched over you all the time, 
have prepared great adventures for you. Without our 
help you could accomplish little; with it you can do 
anything. And we mean to help you. This Medusa 
you are to seek and slay, dwells a great distance from 
here. For all the rapidity of your running, you would 
need a long time to reach there. Now, I am something 
of a traveler myself. And I get about as fast as I do 
because I am the fortunate possessor of a pair of winged 
sandals. ' ' 

Here, lifting his foot and stooping over, Mercury took 
off a sandal, and first held it up for Perseus to see, and 
then placed it beside the bed. While he was taking off 
the other one and placing it beside the first, he went on 
talking : 

" The wings, you see, are not very large, but I have 
never had to complain of them yet. They '11 let you walk 
on the ground, or they'll carry you through the air, 
just as you please. I have never tried to see just how 
fast they will carry me. My uncle Apollo drives the 
chariot of the sun around the world every day, and 
pretty frequently I have to outrun his horses to deliver 
a message to him. I think they '11 carry you faster than 
— than the fastest runner in this island could run. Try 
them. I '11 leave them here for you. ' ' 

As Mercury turned away, there approached out of the 
shadows a tall, dark man, whose beard and eyebrows 



68 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

and hair were inky black, and whose eyes were like wells 
they were so deep and dark. Just the trace of a smile, 
caused by the jesting of Mercury, flitted among the 
wrinkles of his most ancient face. But he was not used 
to jesting, and evidently dwelt among excessively solemn 
people. He was all for business. 

' ' I came from the realm where dwell the souls of the 
dead " (and Perseus knew then it was Pluto talking), 
" to bring you what you must have in order to find Me- 
dusa. ' ' 

While he was speaking, Perseus thought he saw him 
lift a helmet and place it on his head. I say " thought 
he saw," because even as Perseus was still looking at 
him, suddenly he wasn 't there. Perseus batted his eyes, 
and looked again; and then, just as suddenly, there 
stood Pluto again where he had been before. 

" Do you see me now? " asked Pluto. 

And while Perseus was preparing to say " yes," be- 
hold! Pluto was not there. Two seconds later, he re- 
appeared, and without waiting for any word from Per- 
seus, he explained: 

" This helmet you see in my hand " (and Perseus 
really could see it this time) " is a valuable possession. 
When you have it on your head, you can be either 
visible or invisible, as you wish, and as long as you wish. 
I shall leave it with you. Put on the sandals, wear the 
helmet, and seek out the Graeae." 

Physical activity comes to all men; and knowledge 
comes to those who will learn from the experience of 
men who have lived before them. At last, to a few, 
comes wisdom, mightiest of all. 

As Pluto drew back, and faded into a shadow, the 
place where he had stood, disappearing and reappearing 



( 



THE ROYAL FAMILY 69 

so puzzlingly, was taken by Minerva. In the moonlight 
she looked very gracious and very beautiful to Perseus ; 
and the moonbeams that fell upon the shield she car- 
ried were doubled in brilliancy. 

" To slay Medusa, my good Perseus, you will need 
your own sword, and the sandals of swiftness, and the 
helmet of invisibility," she said. " And you will need 
still more. Some things must be looked directly in the 
face when they are attacked. Some must be seen in- 
directly. This shield, this iEgis of mine, which shines 
so brightly in the moonlight, will serve you as a mirror. 
When you have found the Medusa, look not directly 
upon her face, lest calamity befall. Use the shield for 
a mirror; through it find and slay the monster. Only 
the Graeae can tell you how to find Medusa, and to find 
the Graeae you must journey to the northernmost regions 
of the world." 

Minerva left the shield beside the sandals and the 
helmet, and passed from sight. However much Perseus 
desired to stay awake, so soon as his visitors were gone 
he fell asleep. When he roused in the morning, he 
found the precious gifts of the gods, and he knew that 
his dream was not all a dream. He remembered the in- 
structions that had been given him. Probably he tried 
the sandals, and I suspect he tested the power of the 
helmet upon his friends, but, as I have said before, the 
story does not tell. He bade farewell to his mother, and 
departed on his adventure. 

He walked along until he came to a hillside, where no 
one was in sight. He bound on his sandals and rose up, 
up into the air. Slowly he went at first, until he gained 
confidence; then off he went, swifter than a carrier 
pigeon, swifter than the seven-league boots ever carried 



70 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

their owner. Straight to the north he flew, on and on 
for days, till he came to the land of cold and perpetual 
darkness. Here, he knew, lived the Graeae, of whom he 
had learned something before he left home. They were 
three sisters, hideously ugly, old, old women. They 
were so old (at least, I guess that was the reason) that 
they had worn out all their eyes but one, and of all their 
teeth, but a single one remained. This one eye and this 
single tooth they used each in her turn. Perseus placed 
his helmet on his head, and with a wish made himself 
invisible. He stole softly among the three old crones, 
and he seized the eye just as one of them was handing 
it to the other. At this mishap to them, which, of 
course, they did not understand, the Graeae were in sore 
distress. Perseus then explained that he had snatched 
the eye from them ; but he refused, for all their plead- 
ing, to restore it to them until they had told him all 
about Medusa, and how she was to be found and slain. 
Medusa was one of another set of three sisters, named 
the Gorgons. When she was young and beautiful, she 
prayed to Minerva one day that she might be allowed 
to leave her home in the dark, cold, hateful north, and 
go visit the sunshiny south, where people lived. Minerva 
refused her prayer, and the angry Medusa, in her vanity 
and pain, cried out that Minerva's refusal was the 
result of nothing but jealousy and fear lest men should 
say that Medusa was more beautiful than she. Minerva 
punished this gross impiety with a punishment that was 
most terrible. The face of Medusa remained as beauti- 
ful as ever, but the long curly locks of her beautiful 
hair were changed into writhing, hissing snakes, and she 
became so horrifyingly hideous that whatsoever looked 
on her head was changed outright into stone. 



THE ROYAL FAMILY 71 

Perseus left the Graeae, and flew on till he came to 
where he knew the Gorgons must be. It behooved him 
to advance circumspectly. Holding his shield above 
an 1 slightly before him to use as a mirror, he flew 
on. Carefully, carefully he moved ahead, looking stead- 
fastly upon the Aegis. As great good luck would have 
it, lie came upon the Gorgons while they slept. He ap- 
proached Medusa, and with a single deft stroke he sev- 
ered her head. He thought to escape without waking 
her sisters, but they were roused; and when they per- 
ceived from the headless trunk of Medusa what havoc 
had been wrought upon them, they began a furious pur- 
suit. They faced a double difficulty, however. Per- 
seus was invisible, and his winged sandals bore him 
along with extreme rapidity in his flight. Off to the 
south he sped away, and soon he distanced them so far 
as to be perfectly safe. 

The return journey was long and tedious. He en- 
countered many adventures by the way, too many for 
me to tell you about them. Always he bore the head 
of Medusa safely out of sight. His journey took him 
by way of Africa; why, I am sure I do not see, but it 
did. While he was flying along above the Libyan desert, 
some drops of blood fell from Medusa's head upon the 
hot sands, and gave birth to the venomous serpents that 
infest that region to this day. Again, while he was 
crossing over a sea, some drops of blood fell upon the 
waves, and from them Neptune created the Winged 
Horse, Pegasus. At still another time he was crossing 
the northwest part of Africa. There he came upon the 
Titan Atlas, supporting the weight of the heavens upon 
his shoulders. Through countless years he had sup- 
ported them in the same way. Now he was very weary. 



72 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

He saw Perseus coming afar off, and knew he bore Me- 
dusa's head with him. He cried to him in a loud voice. 
When Perseus drew near, Atlas told him of the wea y 
weight and of his desire for rest. He prayed Perseus 
to give him sight of the head. Perseus drew it fo?th 
from the cloak behind him, and held it high before .he 
tired eyes of the giant. Slowly the eyes closed, and, 
with a last quiver, the enormous body stiffened and hard- 
ened into earth and stone. The mighty Titan changed 
into the mountain range that bears his name still. And 
the white hair of his aged head became the glittering 
snow fields and misty clouds that yet hover about the 
mountain's brow. 

Off Perseus flew again, anxious to return to his mother. 
He drew near the shore of the sounding sea. As he 
came hurrying along high in air, he beheld a strange 
sight. A mighty multitude of people were moving back 
from the shore, beating their breasts and their heads in 
pity and fright. Perseus stooped nearer to see what 
they were about. Those who were not hiding their faces 
in terror, were gazing horror-stricken upon a great rock 
that jutted out on the seashore. Perseus looked thither, 
too, but what he saw puzzled him more than ever. For, 
chained to the rock, stood a beautiful girl, watching in 
fascination the water before her that churned and 
splashed inexplicably. Even as Perseus came down to 
the earth, a huge sea-monster emerged from the waves. 
The hero did not know then, but he was to learn later, 
that the young woman chained to the rock was An- 
dromeda, expiating the sin of her mother. Queen Cas- 
siopeia grew vain because of the beauty of her daughter, 
and boasted rashly that Andromeda was more beautiful 
than the goddesses of the sea. The indignant goddesses 




Perseus and Andromeda 

(illustration by Frank C. Pape from Storr's "Half a Hundred Hero Tales.") 



THE ROYAL FAMILY 73 

persuaded the gods to punish the mother by sending this 
fell monster to ravage the dominions of King Cepheus. 
The king and his counselors besought aid of an oracle, 
and learned that the evil creature would not be appeased 
until the mother's sin should be atoned for by the sacri- 
fice of her daughter to its fury. The chaining of An- 
dromeda and the coming of the beast were the fulfil- 
ment of the oracle. In the lines of poetry a few pages 
onward you may read the story of how Perseus lighted 
beside her and spoke to her ; how she bade him flee from 
the danger that threatened her ; and how he fought with 
the beast, and overcame it, and turned it to a crag 
among the waves by a sight of the head of Medusa. 

Of course, the hero fell in love with the heroine. 
And when Perseus restored the beautiful Andromeda 
to her distracted parents, they were so grateful they 
offered to bestow upon him anything in their might. 
And what gift would he have of them but Andromeda 
to be his wife ? But 

Ay me! for aught that I could ever read, 

Could ever hear by tale or history, 

The course of true love never did run smooth. 

At the very feast given to celebrate the nuptials, a 
former suitor of the princess came with an army of re- 
tainers to claim her for himself, meaning to take her by 
force if need be. Perseus commanded all who were 
friendly to him to turn away and hide their eyes. Then 
he drew Medusa's head from his cloak, and held it aloft. 
And the boisterous suitor, who had been too great a 
coward to fight against the sea-monster for Andromeda, 
was changed into stone, and all his men with him. ■ . 
When the time came to depart, Perseus took An- 



74 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

dromeda, his wife, with him, and journeyed on to 
Seriphus. He came none too soon. The year and a 
day of his allotted absence were gone by, down to the 
setting of the sun on the last day. Polydectes had long 
ago supposed that Perseus was slain. Because he 
thought himself safe, he was this day persecuting Danae 
to force her into obedience to his will. Perseus quickly 
understood what was going on, and he became so angry 
that just the minute the opportunity offered itself he 
plucked out the head of Medusa and held it before the 
gaze of Polydectes. And then Seriphus needed a new 
king. Perseus remembered the king's brother, the old 
fisherman who had been kind to his mother and to him. 
So he sent for the fisherman to leave his hut and come 
to the palace; and then and there he had the people 
swear allegiance to the fisherman as their new king. 

After that, he set out with his wife and his mother, 
and came to Argos. He found turmoil in the land. A 
usurper had seized upon the throne, and cast the old 
King Acrisius into prison. Perseus overcame the 
usurper, and restored his grandfather to the throne. 
The story ought to end here with an " And they all 
lived happy ever after." But there was that oracle, 
" Acrisius shall be slain by the hand of his own grand- 
son." The gods do not forget, and they do not fail. 
In the games to celebrate the restoration of the aged 
king, Perseus took his part gleefully. They were play- 
ing quoits. The turn of Perseus came. With all his 
strength he hurled his quoit. By some strange mis- 
chance — or was it by the will of the gods? — the quoit 
swerved from its straight course, and struck Acrisius in 
the temple. The oracle was fulfilled. 

Perseus was so filled with grief at this mishap that he 



THE ROYAL FAMILY 75 

could not endure to stay near the place. He exchanged 
his kingdom for another one far removed. There he 
ruled wisely and kindly, and drew to the end of his 
days, much loved by his subjects. He had remained 
ever dear to the gods, and after death he was trans- 
ferred by them to the stars, and his wife and her par- 
ents with him. This story was first told a long, long 
time ago, but in the heavens the four constellations of 
the Royal Family still shine, to remind us of the stories 
of a beautiful woman and a very brave hero. 

THE STAR CLUB 

I wish you success with your Star Club. Perhaps 
your uncles and aunts will start clubs, too. We have 
three Star Clubs in our family — one in New York, one 
in Michigan, and one in Colorado. Last winter the 
" Colorado Star Gazers " sent this challenge to the 
"New Jersey Night-Owls :" "We bet you can't see 
Venus by daylight! " 

That seemed possible, because during that week the 
" evening star " was by far the brightest object in the 
sky. But father and daughter searched the sky before 
sunset in vain, and finally we had to ask the " Moon- 
struck Michiganders " how to see Venus while the sun 
was shining. Back came these directions on a postal 
card : ' ' Wait until it is dark and any one can see Venus. 
Then find some tree, or other object, which is in line with 
Venus and over which you can just see her. Put a 
stake where you stand. Next day go there half an hour 
before sunset, and stand a little to the west. You will 
see Venus as big as life. The next afternoon you can 
find her by four o'clock. And if you keep on you will 
see her day before yesterday ! ' ' 



76 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

That was a great " stunt." We did it; and there 
are dozens like it you can do. And that reminds me 
that Father was mistaken about our interest lasting only 
two years. We know that it will not die till we do. For, 
even if we never get a telescope, there will always be 
new things to see. Our club has still to catch Algol, the 
11 demon's eye," which goes out and gleams forth every 
three days, because it is obscured by some dark planet we 
can never see. And we have never yet seen Mira * the 
wonderful, which for some mysterious reason dies down 
to ninth magnitude and then blazes up to second mag- 
nitude every eleventh month. 

Ah, yes, the wonders and the beauties of astronomy 
ever deepen and widen. Better make friends with the 
stars now. For when you are old the,re are no friends 
like old friends. 

— Julia E. Rogers: Earth and Sky Every 
Child Should Enow. By permission of 
the publishers, Doubleday, Page and 
Company. 

ANDROMEDA 

In the spray, like a hovering foam-bow, 

Hung, more fair than the foam-bow, a boy in the bloom 
of his manhood, 

Golden-haired, ivory-limbed, ambrosial; over his shoul- 
der 

Hung for a veil of his beauty the gold-fringed folds of 
the goat-skin, 

Bearing the brass of his shield, as the sun flashed clear 
on its clearness. 

* Mira is in Cetus, a constellation in the southern hemisphere, but 
visible from northern latitudes. 



THE ROYAL FAMILY 77 

Curved on his thigh lay a falchion, and under the gleam 

of his helmet 
Eyes more blue than the main shone aWful ; around him 

Athene 
Shed in her love such grace, such state, and terrible 

daring. 
Hovering over the water he came, upon glittering 

pinions, 
Living, a wonder, outgrown from the tight-laced gold 

of his sandals; 
Bounding from billow to billow, and sweeping the crests 

like a sea-gull; 
Leaping the gulfs of the surge, as he laughed in the joy 

of his leaping. 
Hovering under her brows, like a swallow that haunts 

by the house-eaves, 
Delicate-handed, he lifted the veil of her hair ; while the 

maiden 
Motionless, frozen with fear, wept aloud; till his lips 

unclosing 
Poured from their pearl-strung portal the musical wave 

of his wonder. 
" Ah, well spoke she, the wise one, the gray-eyed Pallas 

Athene, — 
Known to Immortals alone are the prizes which lie for 

the heroes 
Ready prepared at their feet ; for requiring a little, the 

rulers 
Pay back the loan tenfold to the man who, careless of 

pleasure, 
Thirsting for honor and toil, fares forth on a perilous 

errand 



78 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Led by the guiding of gods, and strong in the strength 

of Immortals. 
Thus have they led me to thee : from afar, unknowing, I 

marked thee, 
Shining, a snow-white cross on the dark-green walls of 

the sea-cliff; 
Carven in marble I deemed thee, a perfect work of the 

craftsman. 
Curious I came, till I saw how thy tresses streamed in 

the sea-wind, 
Glistening, black as the night, and thy lips moved slow 

in thy wailing. 
Speak again now — Oh speak ! For my soul is stirred to 

avenge thee; 
Tell me what barbarous horde, without law, unrighteous 

and heartless, 
Hateful to gods and to men, thus have bound thee, a 

shame to the sunlight, 
Scorn and prize to the sailor: but my prize now; for a 

coward, 
Coward and shameless were he, who so finding a glorious 

jewel 
Cast on the wayside by fools, would not win it and keep 

it and wear it, 
Even as I will thee; for I swear by the head of my 

father, 
Bearing thee over the sea-wave, to wed thee in Argos 

the fruitful, 
Beautiful, meed of my toil no less than this head which 

I carry, 
Hidden here fearful — oh speak ! ' ' 
Then, like a fawn when startled, she looked with a 

shriek to the seaward. 



THE ROYAL FAMILY 79 

" Touch me not, wretch that I am! For accursed, a 

shame and a hissing, 
Guiltless, accurst no less, I await the revenge of the 

sea-gods. 
Yonder it comes! Ah go! Let me perish unseen, if I 

perish ! 
Spare me the shame of thine eyes, when merciless fangs 

must tear me 
Piecemeal ! Enough to endure by myself in the light of 

the sunshine, 
Guiltless, the death of a kid! " 

But the boy still lingered around her, 
Loath, like a boy, to forego her, and waken the cliffs 

with his laughter. 
* ' Yon is the foe, then ? A beast of the sea ? I had 

deemed him immortal; 
Kiss me but once, and I go." 

Then lifting her neck, like a sea-bird 
Peering up over the wave, from the foam-white swells 

of her bosom, 
Blushing she kissed him: afar on the topmost Idalian 

summit 
Laughed in the joy of her heart, far-seeing, the queen 

Aphrodite. 
Loosing his arms from her waist he new upward, await- 
ing the sea-beast. 
Onward it came from the southward, as bulky and black 

as a galley, 
Lazily coasting along, as the fish fled leaping before it; 
Lazily breasting the ripple, and watching- by sandbar 

and headland, 
Listening for laughter of maidens at bleaching, or song 

of the fisher, 



80 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Children at play on the pebbles, or cattle that pawed on 

the sandhills. 
Rolling and dripping it came, where bedded in glisten- 
ing purple 
Cold on the cold sea-weeds lay the long white sides of 

the maiden, 
Trembling, her face in her hands, and her tresses afloat 

on the water. 
As when an osprey aloft, if he see on a glittering 

shallow 

the fin of a wallowing dolphin, 

Falls from the sky like a star, while the wind rattles 

hoarse in his pinions : 
Over him closes the foam for a moment; then from the 

sand-bed 
Rolls up the great fish, dead, and his side gleams white 

in the sunshine : 
Thus fell the boy on the beast, unveiling the face of the 

Gorgon ; 
Thus fell the boy on the beast ; thus rolled up the beast 

in his horror, 
Once, as the dead eyes glared into his; then his sides, 

death-sharpened, 
Stiffened and stood, brown rock, in the wash of the wan- 
dering water. 
Beautiful, eager, triumphant, he leapt back again to 

his treasure ; 
Leapt back again, full blest, toward arms spread wide to 

receive him. 
Brimful of honor he clasped her, and brimful of love she 

caressed him, 
Answering lip with lip; while above them the queen 

Aphrodite 



THE ROYAL FAMILY 81 

Poured on their foreheads and limbs, unseen, ambrosial 

odors, 
Givers of longing, and rapture, and chaste content in 

espousals. 
Happy whom ere they be wedded anoints she, the Queen 

Aphrodite ! 
Then on the brows of the maiden a veil bound Pallas 

Athene ; 
Ample it fell to her feet, deep-fringed, a wonder of 

weaving. 
Ages and ages agone it was wrought on the heights of 

Olympus, 
Wrought in the gold-strung loom, by the finger of cun- 
ning Athene. 
In it she wove all creatures that teem in the womb of 

the ocean — 
Nereid, siren, and triton and dolphin, and arrowy 

fishes 
Glittering round, many-hued, on the flame-red folds of 

the mantle. 
In it she wove, too, a town where gray-haired kings sat 

in judgment; 
Scepter in hand in the market they sat, doing right by 

the people, 
Wise : while above watched Justice, and near, far-seeing 

Apollo. 
Round it she wove for a fringe all herbs of the earth 

and the water, 
Violet, asphodel, ivy, and vine-leaves, roses and lilies, 
Coral and sea-fan, and tangle, the blooms and the palms 

of the ocean : 
Now from Olympus she bore it, a dower to the bride of a 

hero. 



82 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Over the limbs of the damsel she wrapt it : the maid still 

trembled, 
Shading her face with her hands; for the eyes of the 

goddess were awful. 
Then, as a pine upon Ida when southwest winds blow 

landward, 
Stately she bent to the damsel, and breathed on her : un- 
der her breathing 
Taller and fairer she grew; and the goddess spoke in 

her wisdom. 
" Courage I give thee; the heart of a queen, and the 

mind of Immortals ; 
Godlike to talk with the gods, and to look on their eyes 

unshrinking ; 
Fearing the sun and the stars no more, and the blue 

salt water ; 
Fearing us only, the lords of Olympus, friends of the 

heroes ; 
Chastely and wisely to govern thyself and thy house and 

thy people, 
Bearing a godlike race to thy spouse, till dying I set thee 
High for a star in the heavens, a sign and a hope to the 

seamen, 
Spreading thy long white arms all night in the heights 

of the aether, 
Hard by thy sire and the hero thy spouse, while near 

thee thy mother 
Sits in her ivory chair, as she plaits ambrosial tresses. 
All night long thou wilt shine ; all day thou wilt feast on 

Olympus, 
Happy, the guest of the gods, by thy husband, the god- 
begotten/ ' 

— Charles Kingslet. 



THE ORION GROUP 

ORION— TAURUS— SIRIUS 
LEPUS— ARGO 

Farther to the south and east than Perseus will rise the 
Orion Group. A line drawn from Polaris through the eastern 
part of the constellation of Perseus will pass very near the 
Pleiades in Taurus. These constellations can be seen at their 
best in January and February when they are nearly overhead, 
although Orion comes chasing Taurus into the night sky 
in December. Orion, Sirius, and Taurus can still be seen, 
in April, low down in the west. 

Orion's sword is usually drawn parallel to the belt, not up 
and down as the line of stars that mark the sword would 
indicate. 



Pleiades 



Ei Nath 




Lepus — 
The Hare 



1 h£. . Cards Major — 
Sinus 

The Big Dog 




Many a night from yonder ivied easement, ere I went to rest, 
Did I look on great Orion sloping slowly to the West. 
Many a night I saw the Pleiads, rising thro' the mellow shade, 
Glitter like a swarm of fire-flies tangled in a silver braid. 

— Tennyson: Locksley Hall. 



ORION 

In the olden times an aged and lonely man sat at the 
door of his hut one day, bemoaning to himself the fact 
that he was alone in the world. He had no near neighbors, 
and everything that was done he had to do for himself. 
He had lived alone for a long while, hunting and fishing. 
While he was strong, he had no care. But as he felt 
the weakness of age stealing upon him, he began to think 
with dread of the helplessness of the very old, and to 
grieve that he had neither a son nor a daughter. 

As he sat muttering to himself, he looked up and was 
surprised to see before him three strangers. His ears 
were good, but he had heard no noise of footsteps. He 
was startled, but not frightened. He saw they meant 
to visit him, and so he arose and greeted them cour- 
teously. The three strangers replied gravely and 
kindly, and upon his invitation entered the hut, where 
they were made as comfortable as might be. The old 
man wondered what in the world could bring the 
strangers to this lonesome place, and how they could 
have come, for they looked entirely too little fatigued 
to have traveled far; but he felt that courtesy did not 
permit him to question them on these matters. 

Instead, he busied himself to wait on them. He 
brought cold spring water for them to. drink, and 
would have offered them water to bathe their hands 
and faces and their feet, but their utter freedom from 
the weariness of travel caused him to hesitate. While 

87 



88 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

he paused, the youngest and most beautiful of the three 
spoke. His forehead was like the clouds of dawn for 
whiteness, his cheeks flamed with the rosy red of sun- 
set, his eyes were blue as the summer noon, and his hair 
tumbled about his shoulders in masses dark and rich 
as clouds of winter storm. His words were simple, but 
they were soothing, and flowed on like the music of the 
wind sighing in the tree tops. And as he spoke, the 
hut grew brighter, and filled with an opal light. The 
aged huntsman was abashed at the change, and knew 
not what to do. 

Then the tallest of the three, the one who seemed to 
be the leader, saw the awe in the simple man's face, 
and reassured him, saying, 

11 Have no fear. We came but to share your hos- 
pitality. What was it you were saying when we drew 
near the cottage? " 

His voice was deep, and like the pealing of an organ 
heard afar off. 

When the huntsman heard, he feared no longer, but 
was like one in a dream, whose will is not his own. Very 
simply he replied, and told them of his dread of the 
helplessness of old age, when it should come and find 
him with no son and no daughter, no one to serve 
him. 

" Again I say, have no fear," repeated the leader of 
the strangers. " You shall have your wish. For that 
reason have we come to visit you. ' ' 

And then the old man, looking upon him, understood. 
That lofty brow, that flowing beard, those beneficent 
eyes, he could not mistake. He was in the presence of 
Jove, father of gods and men. And when he knew the 
gods, he bowed himself, and worshiped them. 



THE ORION GROUP 89 

1 1 Naught have I worthy, ' ' he declared, ' ' save a single 
ox, but that will I sacrifice unto you." 

To test him, Jupiter permitted him to build an altar 
in his yard, and sacrifice the ox upon it. And the gods 
were well pleased with the old man's service. When 
they were ready to depart, Jupiter bade him take the ox- 
hide and bury it in the ground. And though the aged 
man little knew what it could mean, he joyfully obeyed 
the command, for he held that the gods would not fail 
of their promise, they would surely give him what he 
wished for most. 

Next morning, wondering whether the previous day 
was not all a dream, the aged huntsman looked out of 
his door toward the mound of the buried ox-hide, and 
hardly knew whether to believe his eyes or to believe 
that he was still dreaming, so astounded was he when 
he saw a small boy walking from the mound directly 
towards him. But the gods had kept their word: the 
boy was real enough. 

The pious huntsman took the boy into his hut, gave 
him the name Orion, and treated him as his own child ; 
indeed, he was his own child, for in this manner the 
gods had given him a son. He cared for him, watched 
him grow strong, taught him all the lore of forest and 
hillside. Orion thrived apace, and grew big of bone 
and muscle. Soon he was larger than his father; and 
his heart was big as well as his body. He remained with 
his father, protecting him through all the decrepitude 
of old age, caring for him patiently and tenderly un- 
til death came. 

Orion had continued to grow in size and strength, 
passing beyond human stature; he was now become a 
giant, as we might naturally have expected of one who 



90 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

was born of the earth, as he was. When his father was 
no more, Orion allowed the hunt to lead him farther 
and farther away from home. He was young, he was 
strong ; the blood ran red in his veins. Daily his merry 
halloo and the deep baying of his favorite hunting-dog 
roused the echoes in some new dell or nook of the vale 
of Tempe or the dales of Arcady. 

The hunt led him one day into the most beautiful 
valley he had ever seen. Ancient trees spread wide 
their boughs above a turf so green and soft that his 
feet sank ankle-deep. Blue flowers lifted their faces 
and nodded to the breezes and the flecks of sunshine 
that fell through the leaves of the trees. The song 
of the birds was made sweeter by the tinkling chorus 
of a brook that babbled somewhere out of sight. Not 
Venus herself could have chosen a lovelier spot for her 
maidens to sport in. Orion forgot the chase, forgot 
Sirius, and wandered on rejoicing in the serenity and 
the fragrance of the place, until he was roused from his 
musing thoughts by the sound of the gleeful voices of 
girls at play. Following the sounds, he passed around 
a mass of young trees curtained with blossoming vines, 
and came upon the edge of a meadow fair and smooth, 
where he stopped stock-still. 

"Well might he think he saw there before him the god- 
dess of love and her attendant nymphs. He stood long, 
gazing silently upon them, as in and out they wove hap- 
pily through the mazes of a dance. Never, never, had 
he seen creatures more beautiful than these seven tall 
and lissome maidens. As they danced they tossed a 
ball from one to another, and their hair and gossamer 
robes fluttered in the breeze. To the entranced Orion, 
their very bodies, swaying rhythmically, seemed to make 



THE ORION GROUP 91 

music; he was quite sure their voices did. He would 
willingly have stood forever, looking and listening, 
could the damsels but ha*ve stayed too, dancing and 
laughing and singing before him. But joy ever makes 
haste to slip away. One of the maidens missed the 
ball and it flew past her, straight toward Orion. The 
tender-hearted youth, with never a thought of fright- 
ening them, stooped and picked up the ball, meaning to 
return it that they might resume their play. The whole 
merry troop had started after it, but when they saw 
Orion so close upon them, they stopped abruptly, hov- 
ering for one single second, like a bevy of partridges sur- 
prised by a hunter in a field of corn. Then, as sud- 
den as the whir of partridges' wings, they wheeled and 
fled away. Orion had not the slightest desire to harm 
any one of them, but he was too much enamored of 
their loveliness willingly to lose sight of them. He 
ran in pursuit of them. Away and away they sped. 
And he followed fast. Always by as much as he drew 
near to them, by so much did they increase their speed ; 
and flie faster they ran,' the oftener he redoubled his 
effort to overtake them. Long and far the chase con- 
tinued. The nymphs were sorely distressed, but on 
they struggled. Often they besought the gods for aid; 
finally, in agony, they prayed to be turned to birds so 
that they might escape. The gods granted their prayer, 
and changed them into doves. But they were dear to 
the gods, for they were the daughters of Atlas, the giant, 
who supported on his mighty shoulders the heavens, 
keeping them from falling and crushing both gods and 
men. In gratitude, the gods permitted the daughters 
of Atlas, now changed into doves, to fly on up into the 
sky, where, through a second change, they were trans- 



92 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

formed into the group of stars called the Pleiades, a con- 
stellation as beautiful as Orion thought the maidens he 
chased. 

The disappointed lover may have continued to seek 
for the maidens, not knowing that they were gone from 
the earth forever. Perhaps he went day after day to 
the beautiful meadow. I think it very probable that he 
did, but the story does not say, and I can not tell. If 
he did, it mattered not how quietly he might approach, 
he found the place deserted; never again might he see 
their jocund dance or hear their laughter resounding 
there. When finally he knew that his search was futile, 
he resumed his hunting. Again Sirius filled the woods 
with the din of his baying till they echoed and re-echoed. 
The disconsolate lover hunted stag and wild boar until, 
in the joy of the chase, he forgot his grief. Farther 
and ever farther he wandered ; and as the months passed 
by, his fame spread, too ; he became known as a mighty 
hunter. 

One day he came to the island of Chios. There he 
heard of Oenopion, the kiug ; and it was reported to him 
that Oenopion had a daughter who was very, very beau- 
tiful. Orion wondered if she was as beautiful as the 
Pleiades he had seen. He made way to the capital city, 
and sought out the palace that he might see for himself. 
Right well disconcerted was the porter at the palace 
gate when he saw the giant approach. 

" Ho! mighty man! " he said; " come you in peace 
or in war ? "What seek you ? ' ' 

Now, the porter of the king's palace was himself a 
tall, strong man, a great warrior in the country 's army ; 
but beside Orion he looked like a child. 

" In peace," answered Orion. " I would speak with 



THE ORION GROUP 93 

your king, and see his daughter, for it has been told 
me that she is the most beautiful woman in the world." 

" Oh ! say you so ! And who are you, that you ' ' 

But the porter got no further in his impudent reply ; 
for Orion was not used to being crossed in his will, and 
now he lifted his arm as if he meant to strike. Where- 
upon the porter decided suddenly that politeness is best 
towards strangers. 

" Come you within, stranger," he said obsequiously. 
' ' Give me your name and say what land you come from, 
that I may tell the king who wishes to see him." 

Orion was easily mollified; so he answered the man's 
questions, and sent him off to seek Oenopion. 

You may readily believe that when the king heard 
what a giant had come to visit him, Orion was not kept 
long in waiting. The porter returned presently, and 
conducted Orion to the great hall of the palace, where 
the king sat, surrounded by his courtiers and his war- 
riors. Orion had to stoop to enter the doorway, and 
Avhen he was inside, he seemed almost to fill the hall 
with his bulk, he was so big. He must have appeared 
very odd to the finely clad men there, as he stalked for- 
ward, his brawny body clothed in the skin of a lion and 
his enormous arms and legs bare. The king greeted him 
courteously, bade him be seated near his royal self, and 
entered into conversation with him. He asked questions 
concerning many things ; and Orion answered simply and 
with dignity; he was not in the least abashed, for it 
had never entered into his big simple heart to think 
of himself as the inferior of any man. When the day 
had worn on, and night came, serving-men placed tables 
about, and a feast was prepared. And when the king 
and his guests had feasted, and it came time to serve 



94 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

wine, the king's daughter came into the hallway; she 
took a beaker from her father's table, and when a 
servant had poured wine into it, she gave it first to her 
father, and afterwards to Orion. Before he drank of 
it, Orion looked upon her, as she stood there before him 
in the torchlight. She seemed very stately, and fair, 
and beautiful after the fashion of beauty of the Greek 
women. As Orion drank of the best wine he had ever 
tasted, for Chios is famous for its wine, it certainly lost 
nothing of its savor because it came to him from the 
hand of this tall and erect princess. And as he looked 
upon her, he loved her. Gone was the memory of 
the Pleiades. He forgot he had come to see if the 
princess was as beautiful as they. He forgot to make 
any comparison. He only knew that Merope was beau- 
tiful, and that he loved her. 

King Oenopion was not greatly prepossessed with 
Orion — indeed, he rather feared him, for all his gentle 
disposition; but he invited him to remain as his guest. 
And Orion stayed on, for he loved Merope, the king's 
daughter; and he thought she looked not with disfavor 
upon him. After several days had passed by, Orion 
asked Oenopion for the hand of his daughter in mar- 
riage. Now was the king highly displeased. He did 
not approve of Orion for a son-in-law, though why, I 
am sure, I do not know. I suspect that there was a 
streak of cowardice in him, and that he feared Orion 
might somehow endanger his throne. He would much 
rather have seen Orion gone from the country, or dead, 
than married to his lovely daughter. He was afraid to 
say as much, however, to Orion; so made first one ex- 
cuse and then another. Orion insisted. Then the king 
replied that word had been brought him of the ravages 



THE ORION GROUP 95 

of a fierce wild boar in a corner of his kingdom; the 
people were in distress, and had sent for help. Of 
course, he said, the king's daughter could not be mar- 
ried with feasting and merry-making while the king's 
subjects were in peril. If Orion, who claimed to be 
such a marvelous hunter, would slay the boar, then, per- 
haps, the marriage might be discussed. Orion went and 
slew the boar with hardly any trouble at all, and soon 
returned, bringing the tusks as trophies for Merope. 
He thought that now surely he had won the favor of 
the king. But he was mistaken. Oenopion disliked 
him more than before. Instead of consenting to his 
wedding Merope, he set him still other tasks. Orion 
cleared the whole island of wild beasts and monsters, 
and brought the spoils to the princess. Oenopion, how- 
ever, distrusted him, and hated him still. Despairing 
of being rid of the giant in any other way, he made him 
drunk with wine one day, and while Orion was in this 
helpless condition the king had his eyes put out, and 
then made the royal servants carry him out to the sea- 
shore, hoping, I suspect, that, drunk and blind, the 
waves would drown him. 

In his desperate condition, Orion hardly knew what to 
do. He sought the advice of an oracle, and was in- 
structed to procure the aid of certain blacksmiths, who, 
like himself, were giants. He set off to wander again, 
and traveled till he came to Lemnos, where he heard the 
sound of hammers striking on an anvil. He followed 
the sound, and came where he found Yulcan, the black- 
smith god, and his attendants at work. Vulcan pitied 
him, and gave him Cedalion, one of the Cyclops, for a 
guide. Orion placed Cedalion upon his shoulders, and 
traveled towards the mountains of the east until he met 



96 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

the god of the sun, who caused the first rays of the 
morning sun to fall upon the blinded eyes, and restored 
the power of sight to the giant. 

Orion went back to his old life of hunting. "Whether 
he still loved and remembered Merope or not, I can not 
tell you. But certain it is, as I learned the tale, that 
while hunting in a new country, he encountered a 
maiden more lovely than any he had yet seen. This was 
the goddess Diana, even more famed as a huntress than 
he as a hunter. It is not told in the story that he 
fell in love with her, but she was pleased with him, and 
showed him marked favor. Often they followed the 
chase together. In the end, news of this came to Apollo, 
the brother of Diana, and he became alarmed lest she 
should love Orion and desire to marry him. Now Diana 
had sworn never to marry, and it is a terrible thing for a 
god or a goddess to break an oath. Such a catastrophe 
Apollo determined to prevent, no matter how much suf- 
fering he might cause. 

One day, while they were walking along the shore of 
the sea, he began to tease his sister, saying he did not 
believe she could shoot so well as she was famed to do. 

" Try me," she exclaimed. 

" Very well, I will," Apollo rejoined. " Do you see 
that black speck floating yonder far out on the waves? 
I dare you to try to hit it. " 

The huntress queen lifted her silver bow, fitted a 
shaft, and, with an aim that looked almost careless, shot 
her arrow swift and true. The speck sank, and re- 
appeared no more. Alas ! it was but a sorry jest Apollo 
had played. That speck was the head of Orion, who 
had been sporting in the waves. When Diana learned 
that she had slain her favorite, she was sorely grieved. 



THE ORION GROUP 97 

But grief and tears could not restore life to the dead. 
The best she could do was to place Orion as a constella- 
tion among the stars. 

And there he appears, visible to you and me to this 
day, the most splendid of all the constellations. You 
can most readily find him in the autumn, — starting in 
the east early in the evening, and following the chase 
across the sky through the night, — a giant with girdle, 
sword, lion's skin, and club. The Pleiades flee be- 
fore him, ever pursued, never caught. And always fol- 
lowing close at his heels is his faithful dog, its mouth 
made of the wonderful star Sirius, the Dog Star, the 
brightest in the heavens. 

When, with the aid of your charts, you have found 
the constellation of Orion, to the south and east of 
Perseus, you will never fail to recognize it afterwards. 
It contains two first magnitude stars, Betelgeuse and 
Rigel, that seem to be balanced against each other. Both 
are tremendous suns, probably thousands of times 
brighter than our sun, and so far away from us that 
no astronomer has succeeded in even estimating their 
distance. Between them lie three stars, almost in a 
straight row, that match each other in brilliancy and 
tint as perfectly as if they were selected gems. They 
are in Orion's belt, and below them hangs the hunter's 
sword, a line of fourth and fifth magnitude stars. Be- 
telgeuse and Bellatrix are in his shoulder, and Rigel is 
in his uplifted foot. With club aloft in his right hand, 
and the skin of a lion for a shield on his left arm, Orion 
seems to be awaiting Taurus, who charges down upon 
him from the northwest, only to be driven forever back- 
wards across the sky. 



98 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

The fiery Aldebaran, in the right eye of Taurus, is a 
first magnitude star in the cluster forming a V along 
the nose of Taurus, and called the Hyades. The Hyades 
were nymphs, the daughters of Atlas, into whose care 
Jove intrusted the infant Bacchus, and whose fidelity 
was so great that he rewarded them by giving them a 
place in the sky. The Hyades have always been as- 
sociated with rainy weather. 

Another cluster in Taurus is, perhaps, the most cele- 
brated group among the stars, the lovely Pleiades — 
" Though small their size and pale their light, wide is 
their fame." In all ages and all countries the Pleiades 
have been watched and wondered at. By many tribes 
they have been associated with religious rites, and num- 
berless myths have grown up about them. Often they 
are known as the Seven Stars or the Seven Sisters, al- 
though most people can see only six. One of the stars 
may have been brighter at some time, because the story 
of the lost Pleiad is known far and wide. In our rare 
and delightful Texas atmosphere, which rivals that of 
Italy and Egypt, I have counted more than seven with 
the naked eye. 

There has always seemed to be a misty light about 
them that did not come from the visible stars themselves ; 
and at last photography has revealed the fact that a 
vast nebula surrounds the Pleiades, seeming to con- 
nect them as one great system in the formative stage. 
They are so vastly far from us that we have no idea 
how great the distance is, but it requires more than a 
hundred years for their light to reach us. The Pleiades 
chart, which is on a much larger scale than our other 
charts, will show you their positions and their names. 



THE ORION GROUP 99 

You will notice that the main stars form a short- 
handled dipper, and sometimes people who do not know 
the constellations wonder if they are the " Little Dip- 
per.' ' 

• 
Asterope • 

" Taygeta 



» Celaeno 
Pleione ( 




Atlas 1 

Merope 



Electra 



Going back to Orion, and following the line made by 
the stars in his belt to the southeast, you will find Sirius, 
the most brilliant and the most fascinatingly beautiful 
of all the stars. It is in the mouth of Orion's Dog, as 
we have already learned. Not far away, at the feet of 
Orion, is Lepus, the Little Hare, which is always being 
chased by the Dog, but, of course, never caught. 

South of Sirius, but not visible from much of the 
northern hemisphere, is Argo, the ship in which Jason 
sailed away in search of the Golden Fleece. Its most 
brilliant star, Canopus, can sometimes be seen from 
middle and southern Texas, shining beautifully low 
down in the south. Canopus is second only to Sirius 
in magnitude, but it is vastly farther away from us than 
Sirius is. Professor Simon Newcomb places it among 
those stars whose intrinsic brilliancy exceeds that of the 
sun at least ten thousand times. If Canopus is ten 
thousand times more brilliant than the sun, and Sirius 
is forty times more brilliant than the sun, how much 



100 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

brighter than Sirius is Canopus? If you assume that 
the size is in proportion to the brilliancy, how far would 
Canopus stretch beyond the earth, if its center were 
placed where the center of the sun now is ? 



ASTROLOGY 

In the early civilizations, before knowledge had re- 
vealed that the stars were vastly distant from us and 
made of material like our own sun, the people, in trying 
to explain the workings of the universe, decided that the 
stars exerted a great influence upon the destiny of man. 
The astrologers, the men who read the stars, contended 
that the positions of the stars at the time of a child's 
birth influenced his whole life. According as he was 
born under a star lucky or ill-omened, so his life would 
be successful or ill-favored. The astrologers were con- 
sulted about all enterprises, and no step of importance 
was taken until the stars indicated success. 

Many of our words have been derived, through astrol- 
ogy, from the names of stars that were supposed to 
shed certain influences; thus, saturnine from Saturn, 
mercurial from Mercury, and jovial from Jupiter; dis- 
aster means the disfavor of the stars, and consider means 
to consult the stars. 

" The oldest astrologers we know of were the Chaldeans, and 
star-reading was carried from them to the Egyptians and 
Babylonians. It marched in triumph through Greece and the 
Roman Empire, and in the latter part of the Middle Ages it 
held its own in the rest of Europe as well. The Arabians, 
Persians, and Chinese were past masters in the art of star- 
reading, and even up to a few years ago Imperial astrologers 



THE ORION GROUP 101 

were still on duty at the Peking court. Chairs of astrology 
were established at the old universities in Southern Europe, 
and only abolished about the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
tury; whilst kings and princes of those days showed greater 
preference for the pronouncements of star-gazers than for 
those of more competent persons." — B. H. Burgel: Astron- 
omy for All. 

While we have not had official astrologers " even up 
to a few years ago, ' ' like the Chinese, yet in the last two 
years one of our popular magazines has planted a rank 
weed in a great many homes by publishing a series of 
articles purporting to explain the influence of the stars. 
"Why should the stars, which are all inanimate masses 
of matter, have control of our nervous systems or of 
our destinies, any more than does the brick or wood 
or stone in the house in which we live? "Who believes 
that he is courageous or weak of heart according as 
there was an oak or a willow in the yard of the home 
where he was born? There is as much reason to believe 
this as to believe that stars influence us. If the people 
who conceived of astrology had understood the nature 
of these suns in space as we now know them, astrology 
would never have been. The scientists and all thinking 
persons have long known that astrology is the merest 
superstition, with only its historical interest to give it 
any claim whatever upon our consideration. 

TAURUS 

The Scorpion's stars crawl down behind the sun, 
And when he drops below the verge of day, 

The glittering fangs, their fervid courses run, 
Cling to his skirts and follow him away. 



102 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Then, ere the heels of flying Capricorn 

Have touched the western mountain's darkening rim, 
I mark, stern Taurus, through the twilight gray 
The glinting of thy horn, 

And sullen front, uprising large and dim, 
Bent to the starry hunter's sword, at bay. 

Thy hoofs, unwilling, climb the sphery vault; 

Thy red eye trembles with an angry glare, 
When the hounds follow, and in fierce assault 

Bay through the fringes of the lion's hair. 
The stars that once were mortal in their love, 

And by their love are made immortal now, 
Cluster like golden bees upon thy mane, 
When thou, possessed with Jove, 

Bore sweet Europa's garlands on thy brow, 
And stole her from the green Sicilian plain. 

Type of the stubborn force that will not bend 

To loftier art, — soul of defiant breath 
That blindly stands and battles to the end, 

Nerving resistance with the throes of death, — 
Majestic Taurus! when thy wrathful eye 

Flamed brightest, and thy hoofs a moment stayed 
Their march at Night's meridian, I was born-. 
But in the western sky, 

Like sweet Europa, Love's fair star delayed, 
To hang her garland on thy silver horn. 

Thou giv'st that temper of enduring mold, 
That slights the wayward bent of Destiny, — 

Such as sent forth the shaggy Jarls of old 
To launch their dragons on the unknown sea: 



THE ORION GROUP 103 

Such as keep strong the sinews of the sword, 
The proud, hot blood of battle, — welcome made 

The headsman's axe, the rack, the martyr-fire, 
The ignominious cord, 
When but to yield, had pomps and honors laid 

On heads that molder in ignoble mire. 

Night is the summer when the soul grows ripe 

With Life 's full harvest : of her myriad suns, 
Thou dost not gild the quiet herdsman's pipe, 

Nor royal state, that royal actions shuns. 
But in the noontide of thy ruddy stars 

Thrive strength, and daring, and the blood whence 
springs 
The Heraclidean seed of heroes; then 
Were sundered Gaza's bars; 

Then, 'mid the smitten Hydra 's loosened rings, 
His slayer rested, in the Lernean fen. 

Thine is the subtle element that turns 

To fearless act the impulse of the hour, — 
The secret fire, whose flash electric burns 

To every source of passion and of power. 
Therefore I hail thee, on thy glittering track: 

Therefore I watch thee, when the night grows dark, 
Slow-rising, front Orion's sword along 
The starry zodiac, 

And from thy mystic beam demand a spark 
To warm my soul with more heroic song. 

— Bayard Taylor. 



104 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

THE LOST PLEIAD 

And is their glory from the heavens departed? 
— Oh ! void unmark 'd ! — thy sisters of the sky 
Still hold their place on high, 
Though from its rank thine orb so long hath started, 
Thou, that no more art seen of mortal eye. 

Hath the night lost a gem, the regal night? 
She wears her crown of old magnificence, 
Though thou art exiled thence — 
No desert seems to part those urns of light, 
'Midst the far depth of purple gloom intense. 

They rise in joy, the starry myriads burning — 

The shepherd greets them on his mountains free; 
And from the silvery sea 
To them the sailor's wakeful eye is turning — 
Unchanged they rise, they have not mourn 'd for thee. 

Couldst thou be shaken from thy radiant place 
Even as a dew-drop from the myrtle spray, 
Swept by the wind away? 
Wert thou not peopled by some glorious race, 
And was there power to smite them with decay ? 

Why, who shall talk of thrones, of scepters riven? 
Bow'd be our hearts to think of what we are, 
When from its height afar 
A world sinks thus — and yon majestic heaven 
Shines not the less for that one vanish 'd star! 

— Mrs. Felicia Hemans. 




The Pleiades 

(From photograph by Herbert C. Wilson taken with eight-inch photographic 
telescope, exposure 7 hours.) 



THE ORION GROUP 105 



ORION 



How oft I've watch 'd thee from the garden croft, 
In silence, when the busy day was done, 
Shining with wondrous brilliancy aloft, 
And flickering like a casement 'gainst the sun! 
I've seen thee soar from out some snowy cloud, 
Which held the frozen breath of land and sea, 
Yet broke and sever 'd as the wind grew loud— 
But earth-bound winds could not dismember thee, 
Nor shake thy frame of jewels; I have guess 'd 
At thy strange shape and function, haply felt 
The charm of that old myth about thy belt 
And sword; but, most, my spirit was possess 'd 
By His great Presence, Who is never far 
From His light-bearers, whether man or star. 

— Chaeles Tennyson Turner. 



CANOPUS 

The Star of Egypt, whose proud light 
Never hath beamed on those who rest 
In the White Islands of the West. 

— Moore: Lalla Rookh. 

Canopus shining down over the desert, with its blue 
diamond brightness (that wild, blue, spirit-like bright- 
ness far brighter than we ever witness here), would 
pierce into the heart of the wild Ishmaelitish man, whom 
it was guiding through the solitary waste there. To his 
wild heart, with all feelings in it, with no speech for any 



106 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

feeling, it might seem a little eye, that Canopus, gleam- 
ing out on him from the great, deep Eternity ; revealing 
the inner Splendor to him. 

Cannot we understand how these men worshiped 
Canopus; became what we call Sabeans, worshiping 
the stars? 

To us, also, through every star, through every blade 
of grass, is not a God made visible, if we will open our 
minds and eyes? 

We do not worship in that way now: but is it not 
reckoned still a merit, proof of what we call a " poetic 
nature," that we recognize how every object still verily 
is " a window through which we may look into Infini- 
tude itself? " 

— Carlyle: Heroes and Hero-Worship. 



CANOPUS 

Above the palms, the peaks of pearly gray 

That hang, like dreams, along the slumbering skies, 

An urn of fire that never burns away, 
I see Canopus rise. 

An urn of light, a golden-hearted torch, 

Voluptuous, drowsy-throbbing mid the stars, 

As, incense-fed, from Aphrodite's porch 
Lifted, to beacon Mars. 

Is it from songs and stories of the Past, 

With names and scenes that make our planet fair, — 
From Babylonian splendors, vague and vast, 

And flushed Arabian air : — 



THE ORION GROUP 107 

Or sprung from richer longings of the brain 
And spices of the blood, this hot desire 

To lie beneath that mellow lamp again 
And breathe its languid fire ? 

— Bayard Taylor. 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 

THE CHARIOTEER AND THE TWINS 

At the same time of the year in which Orion is in our night 
sky, farther to the north are the constellations of Auriga and 
the Twins. They are in the east in December and overhead 
in February. When we see them last, they are low down in 
the west in June. 



• Cape^^y^™*^ 




El Nath 




Castor 



Pollux 



Gemini— The Twins 




■MHBH 



AURIGA (THE CHARIOTEER) 

Thou hast loosened the necks of thine horses, and goaded their 

flanks with affright, 
To the race of a course that we know not, on ways that are hid 

from our sight. 
As a wind through the darkness the wheels of their chariot are 

whirled, 
And the light of its passage is night on the face of the world. 

— A. C. Swinburne. 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 

Rising at the same season of year with Aldebaran and 
the Pleiades, and just before Castor and Pollux, is 
another first magnitude star — Capella, the Goat, which 
is between Orion and Polaris, and can easily be found 
by its brightness. The constellation to which it be- 
longs is known as Auriga, the Charioteer, and has come 
from such remote ages that its myth has become con- 
fused. The figure is represented as " a mighty man 
seated on the milky way." In his right hand is a whip. 
His right foot rests upon El Nath, which is the tip of 
Taurus 's horn, and common to both constellations. On 
Auriga's left arm rests the Goat, with Capella in its 
heart. Capella is a tremendous sun, and, according to 
Professor Newcomb, is about one hundred and twenty 
times greater than our sun in actual magnitude. 

About half-way between Sirius and the Pointers you 
will find the bright twin stars, Castor and Pollux, in 
the constellation of the Twins, or Gemini. They come 
up in the East about the same time as Betelgeuse and 
Rigel, but are much farther north. In May and June 
Castor and Pollux are especially attractive, as they hang 
low in the northwest, shining out from a glowing sunset 
sky. 

In the constellation charts, Pollux is the Beta and 
Castor the Alpha, although Pollux is the brighter of the 
two.* It is thought that Castor may have been the 
*See p. 255. 

113 



114 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

brighter three hundred years ago, and that it is losing its 
brilliancy as it recedes from us. Then, too, Pollux is 
coming towards us; so it is growing brighter. 

The twin brothers, Castor and Pollux, distinguished 
themselves in hunting. Castor was a mortal, but Pollux 
was the son of a god. One day Castor was slain in a 
combat. Pollux in his grief implored Jupiter to allow 
him to die also, that he might be with his brother. 
Jupiter was so touched that he permitted Castor to re- 
turn to life, if Pollux would spend half of his time in 
Hades. Later they were translated to the sky, where 
their bright stars, one in the forehead of each, can be 
seen shining close together. 

The Romans were very partial to the " Great Twin 
Brethren," and believed that they often led their 
legions on to success in wars. They built temples to 
them, and had great feasts in their honor. The sailors 
also considered the sign of The Twins as an assurance 
of fair weather and a successful voyage, not infre- 
quently naming their ships after them. St. Paul tells 
us in Acts xxviii, 11, " After three months we departed 
in a ship of Alexandria which had wintered in the isle, 
whose sign was Castor and Pollux." 

TO CASTOR AND POLLUX 

A translation from Homer which shows what the old Greeks 
thought of Castor and Pollux. 

Sing the Twins of Jove, mild Pollux, void of blame, 
And steel-subduing Castor, heirs of fame. 
These are the Powers who earth-born mortals save 
And ships, whose flight is swift along the wave. 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 115 

When wintry tempests o'er the savage sea 

Are raging, and the sailors tremblingly 

Call on the Twins of Jove with prayer and vow, 

Gathered in fear upon the lofty prow, 

And sacrifice with snow-white lambs, — the wind 

And the huge billow bursting close behind 

Even then beneath the weltering waters bear 

The staggering ship, — they suddenly appear, 

On yellow wings rushing athwart the sky, 

And lull the blasts in mute tranquillity, 

And strew the waves on the white Ocean's bed, 

Fair omen of the voyage; from toil and dread 

The sailors rest, rejoicing in the sight, 

And plow the quiet sea in safe delight. 

— Shelley (Adapted). 



THE BATTLE OF LAKE REGILLUS 

A Lay Sung at the Feast in Honor of Castor and Pollux. 



Ho, trumpets, sound a war-note! 

Ho, lictors, clear the way! 
The Knights will ride, in all their pride, 

Along the streets to-day. 
To-day the doors and windows 

Are hung with garlands all, 
From Castor in the Forum, 

To Mars without the wall. 
Each Knight is robed in purple, 

With olive each is crowned; 



116 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

A gallant war-horse under each 

Paws haughtily the ground. 
While flows the Yellow River, 

While stands the Sacred Hill, 
The proud Ides of Quintilis 

Shall have such honor still. 
Gay are the Martian Kalends: 

December's Nones are gay: 
But the proud Ides, when the squadron rides, 

Shall be Rome's whitest day. 

II 

Unto the Great Twin Brethren 

We keep this solemn feast. 
Swift, swift, the Great Twin Brethren 

Came spurring from the east. 
They came o'er wild Parthenius 

Tossing in waves of pine, 
O'er Cirrha's dome, o'er Adria's foam, 

O'er purple Apennine, 
From where with flutes and dances 

Their ancient mansion rings, 
In lordly Lacedaemon, 

The city of two kings, 
To where, by Lake Regillus, 

Under the Porcian height, 
All in the lands of Tusculum, 

Was fought the glorious fight. 

Ill 

Now on the place of slaughter 
Are cots and sheepfolds seen, 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 117 

And rows of vines, and fields of wheat, 

And apple-orchards green; 
The swine crush the big acorns 

That fall from Corne's oaks. 
Upon the turf by the Fair Fount 

The reaper's pottage smokes. 
The fisher baits his angle; 

The hunter twangs his bow; 
Little they think on those strong limbs 

That molder deep below. 
Little they think how sternly 

That day the trumpets pealed; 
How in the slippery swamp of blood 

Warrior and war-horse reeled; 
How wolves came with fierce gallop, 

And crows on eager wings, 
To tear the flesh of captains, 

And peck the eyes of kings ; 
How thick the dead lay scattered 

Under the Porcian height ; 
How through the gates of Tusculum 

Raved the wild stream of flight; 
And how the Lake Regillus 

Bubbled with crimson foam, 
What time the Thirty Cities 

Came forth to war with Rome. 



IV 

But, Roman, when thou standest 

Upon that holy ground, 
Look thou with heed on the dark rock 

That girds the dark lake round. 



118 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

So shalt thou see a hoof -mark 

Stamped deep into the flint: 
It was no hoof of mortal steed 

That made so strange a dint: 
There to the Great Twin Brethren 

Vow thou thy vows, and pray 
That they, in tempest and in fight, 

Will keep thy head alway. 



Since last the Great Twin Brethren 

Of mortal eyes were seen, 
Have years gone by an hundred 

And fourscore and thirteen. 
That summer a Virginius 

Was consul first in place : 
The second was stout Aulus, 

Of the Posthumian race. 
The Herald of the Latines 

From Gabii came in state: 
The Herald of the Latines 

Passed through Rome's Eastern Gate; 
The Herald of the Latines 

Did in our Forum stand; 
And there he did his office, 

A scepter in his hand. 

VI 

" Hear, Senators and people 

Of the good town of Rome, 
The Thirty Cities charge you 

To bring the Tarquins home : 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 119 

And if ye still be stubborn, 

To work the Tarquins wrong, 
The Thirty Cities warn you, 

Look that your walls be strong.' ' 

VII 

Then spake the Consul Aulus, 

He spake a bitter jest: 
" Once the jays sent a message 

Unto the eagle's nest: — 
Now yield thou up thine eyrie 

Unto the carrion-kite, 
Or come forth valiantly, and face 

The jays in deadly fight. — 
Forth looked in wrath the eagle ; 

And carrion-kite and jay, 
Soon as they saw his beak and claw, 

Fled screaming far away. ' ' 

VIII 

The Herald of the Latines 

Hath hied him back in state: 
The Fathers of the City 

Are met in high debate. 
Then spake the elder Consul, 

An ancient man and wise: 
1 ' Now hearken, Conscript Fathers, 

To that which I advise. 
In seasons of great peril 

'Tis good that one bear sway,* 
Then choose we a Dictator, 

Whom all men shall obey. 



120 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Camerium knows how deeply 

The sword of Aulus bites, 
And all our city calls him 

The man of seventy fights. 
Then let him be Dictator 

For six months and no more, 
And have a Master of the Knights 

And axes twenty-four. ' ' 



IX 

So Aulus was Dictator, 

The man of seventy fights; 
He made Aebutius Elva 

His Master of the Knights. 
On the third morn thereafter, 

At dawning of the day, 
Did Aulus and Aebutius 

Set forth with their array. 
Sempronius Atratinus 

Was left in charge at home, 
With boys, and with gray-headed men, 

To keep the walls of Rome. 
Hard by the Lake Regillus 

Our camp was pitched at night: 
Eastward a mile the Latines lay, 

Under the Porcian height. 
Far over hill and valley 

Their mighty host was spread ; 
And with their thousand watch-fires 

The midnight sky was red. 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 121 



XIV 



Now on each side the leaders 

Give signal for the charge; 
And on each side the footmen 

Strode on with lance and targe ; 
And on each side the horsemen 

Struck their spurs deep in gore, 
And front to front the armies 

Met with a mighty roar: 
And under that great battle 

The earth with blood was red; 
And, like the Pomptine fog at morn, 

The dust hung overhead ; 
And louder still and louder 

Rose from the darkened field 
The braying of the war-horns, 

The clang of sword and shield, 
The rush of squadrons sweeping 

Like whirlwinds o'er the plain, 
The shouting of the slaying, 

And screeching of the slain. 

XVII 

But meanwhile in the center 

Great deeds of arms were wrought; 
There Aulus the Dictator 

And there Valerius fought. 
Aulus with his good broadsword 

A bloody passage cleared 
To where, amidst the thickest foes, 

He saw the long white beard. 



122 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Flat lighted that good broadsword 

Upon proud Tarquin's head. 
He dropped the lance : he dropped the reins 

He fell as fall the dead. 
Down Aulus springs to slay him, 

"With eyes like coals of fire ; 
But faster Titus hath sprung down, 

And hath bestrode his sire. 
Latian captains, Roman knights, 

Fast down to earth they spring, 
And hand to hand they fight on foot 

Around the ancient king. 
First Titus gave tall Cseso 

A death-wound in the face ; 
Tall Cseso was the bravest man 

Of the brave Fabian race: 
Aulus slew Rex of Gabii, 

The priest of Juno ? s shrine ; 
Valerius smote down Julius, 

Of Rome 's great Julian line ; 
Julius, who left his mansion, 

High on the Velian hill, 
And through all turns of weal and woe 

Followed proud Tarquin still. 
Now right across proud Tarquin 

A corpse was Julius laid; 
And Titus groaned with rage and grief, 

And at Valerius made. 
Valerius struck at Titus, 

And lopped off half his crest ; 
But Titus stabbed Valerius 

A span deep in the breast. 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 123 

Like a mast snapped by the tempest, 

Valerius reeled and fell. 
Ah ! woe is me for the good house 

That loves the people well! 
Then shouted loud the Latines; 

And with one rush they bore 
The struggling Romans backward 

Three lances ? length and more : 
And up they took proud Tarquin, 

And laid him on a shield, 
And four strong yeomen bare him, 

Still senseless, from the field. 



XVIII 

But fiercer grew the fighting 

Around Valerius dead; 
For Titus dragged him by the foot, 

And Aulus by the head. 
" On, Latines, on! " quoth Titus, 

" See how the rebels fly! " 
* ' Romans, stand firm ! ' ' quoth Aulus, 

' ' And win this fight, or die ! 
They must not give Valerius 

To raven and to kite, 
For aye Valerius loathed the wrong, 

And aye upheld the right ; 
And for your wives and babies 

In the front rank he fell. 
Now play the men for the good house 

That loves the people well ! ' ' 



124 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

XIX 

Then tenfold round the body 

The roar of battle rose, 
Like the roar of a burning forest, 

When a strong north wind blows. 
Now backward, and now forward, 

Rocked furiously the fray, 
Till none could see Valerius, 

And none wist where he lay. 
For shivered arms and ensigns 

Were heaped there in a mound, 
And corpses stiff, and dying men 

That writhed and gnawed the ground; 
And wounded horses kicking, 

And snorting purple foam: 
Right well did such a couch befit 

A Consular of Rome: 



But north looked the Dictator; 

North looked he long and hard ; 
And spake to Caius Cossus, 

The Captain of his Guard : 
" Caius, of all the Romans 

Thou hast the keenest sight; 
Say, what through yonder storm of dust 

Comes from the Latian right? " 

XXI 

Then answered Caius Cossus : 
" I see an evil sight; 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 125 

The banner of proud Tusculum 

Comes from the Latian right; 
I see the plumed horsemen; 

And far before the rest 
I see the dark-gray charger, 

I see the purple vest; 
I see the golden helmet 

That shines far off like flame; 
So ever rides Mamilius, 

Prince of the Latian name." 

XXII 

1 ' Now hearken, Caius Cossus : 

Spring on thy horse's back; 
Ride as the wolves of Apennine 

Were all upon thy track ; 
Haste to our southward battle: 

And never draw thy rein 
Until thou find Herminius, 

And bid him come amain." 

XXIII 

So Aulus spake, and turned him 

Again to that fierce strife; 
And Caius Cossus mounted, 

And rode for death and life. 
Loud clanged beneath his horse-hoofs 

The helmets of the dead, 
And many a curdling pool of blood 

Splashed him from heel to head. 
So came he far to southward, 

"Where fought the Roman host, 



126 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Against the banners of the marsh 

And banners of the coast. 
Like corn before the sickle 

The stout Lavinians fell, 
Beneath the edge of the true sword 

That kept the bridge so well. 



XXIV 

' ' Herminius ! Aulus greets thee j 

He bids thee come with speed, 
To help our central battle, 

For sore is there our need ; 
There wars the youngest Tarquin, 

And there the Crest of Flame, 
The Tusculan Mamilius, 

Prince of the Latian name. 
Valerius hath fallen fighting 

In front of our array ; 
And Aulus of the seventy fields 

Alone upholds the day. ' ' 



XXV 

Herminius beat his bosom: 

But never a word he spake. 
He clasped his hand on Auster's mane 

He gave the reins a shake. 
Away, away, went Auster, 

Like an arrow from the bow: 
Black Auster was the fleetest steed 

From Aufidus to Po. 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 127 

XXVI 

Right glad were all the Romans 

Who, in that hour of dread, 
Against great odds bare up the war 

Around Valerius dead, 
When from the south the cheering 

Rose with a mighty swell : 
" Herminius comes, Herminius, 

Who kept the bridge so well ! ' ' 

XXVII 

Mamilius spied Herminius, 

And dashed across the way. 
" Herminius! I have sought thee 

Through many a bloody day. 
One of us two, Herminius, 

Shall never more go home. 
I will lay on for Tusculum, 

And lay thou on for Rome ! ' ' 

XXVIII 

All round them paused the battle, 

While met in mortal fray 
The Roman and the Tusculan, 

The horses black and gray. 
Herminius smote Mamilius 

Through breast-plate and through breast; 
And fast flowed out the purple blood 

Over the purple vest. 
Mamilius smote Herminius 



128 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Through head-piece and through head ; 
And side by side those chiefs of pride 

Together fell down dead. 
Down fell they dead together 

In a great lake of gore : 
And still stood all who saw them fall 

While men might count a score. 



XXIX 

Fast, fast, with heels wild spurning, 

The dark-gray charger fled : 
He burst through ranks of fighting-men, 

He sprang o'er heaps of dead. 
His bridle far out-streaming, 

His flanks all blood and foam, 
He sought the southern mountains, 

The mountains of his home : 
The pass was steep and rugged, 

The wolves they howled and whined; 
But he ran like a whirlwind up the pass, 

And he left the wolves behind. 
Through many a startled hamlet 

Thundered his flying feet; 
He rushed through the gate of Tusculum, 

He rushed up the long white street ; 
He rushed by tower and temple, 

And paused not from his race 
Till he stood before his master's door 

In the stately market-place. 
And straightway round him gathered 

A pale and trembling crowd; 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 129 

And when they knew him, cries of rage 

Brake forth, and wailing loud: 
And women rent their tresses 

For their great prince 's fall ; 
And old men girt on their old swords, 

And went to man the wall. 



XXX 

But, like a graven image, 

Black Auster kept his place, 
And ever wistfully he looked 

Into his master's face. 
The raven-mane that daily, 

With pats and fond caresses, 
The young Herminia washed and combed, 

And twined in even tresses, 
And decked with colored ribands 

From her own gay attire, 
Hung sadly o'er her father's corpse 

In carnage and in mire. 
Forth with a shout sprang Titus, 

And seized black Auster 's rein. 
Then Aulus sware a fearful oath, 

And ran at him amain. 
" The furies of thy brother 

With me and mine abide, 
If one of your accursed house 

Upon black Auster ride ! " 
As on an Alpine watch-tower 

From heaven comes down the flame, 
Full on the neck of Titus 

The blade of Aulus came: 



130 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

And out the red blood spouted, 

In a wide arch and tall, 
As spouts a fountain in the court 

Of some rich Capuan's hall. 
The knees of all the Latines 

Were loosened with dismay, 
When dead, on dead Herminius, 

The bravest Tarquin lay. 

XXXI 

And Aulus the Dictator 

Stroked Auster's raven mane, 
With heed he looked unto the girths, 

With heed unto the rein. 
' i Now bear me well, black Auster, 

Into yon thick array ; 
And thou and I will have revenge 

For thy good lord this day. ' ' 

XXXII 

So spake he; and was buckling 

Tighter black Auster's band, 
When he was aware of a princely pair 

That rode at his right hand. 
So like they were, no mortal 

Might one from other know ; 
White as snow their armor was; 

Their steeds were white as snow. 
Never on earthly anvil 

Did such rare armor gleam: 
And never did such gallant steeds 

Drink of an earthly stream. 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 131 



XXXIII 



And all who saw them trembled, 

And pale grew every cheek; 
And Aulus the Dictator 

Scarce gathered voice to speak. 
' ' Say by what name men call you ? 

"What city is your home? 
And wherefore ride ye in such guise 

Before the ranks of Rome ? ' ' 

XXXIV 

" By many names men call us; 

In many lands we dwell : 
Well Samothracia knows us; 

Cyrene knows us well. 
Our house in gay Tarentum 

Is hung each morn with flowers ; 
High o'er the masts of Syracuse 

Our marble portal towers; 
But by the proud Eurotas 

Is our dear native home ; 
And for the right we come to fight 

Before the ranks of Rome." 

XXXV 

So answered those strange horsemen, 
And each couched low his spear ; 

And forthwith all the ranks of Rome 
Were bold, and of good cheer: 

And on the thirty armies 
Came wonder and affright, 



132 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

And Ardea wavered on the left, 

And Cora on the right. 
1 ' Rome to the charge ! ' ' cried Aulus ; 

' ' The foe begins to yield ! 
Charge for the hearth of Vesta ! 

Charge for the Golden Shield ! 
Let no man stop to plunder, 

But slay, and slay, and slay; 
The gods who live forever 

Are on our side to-day.' ' 



XXXVI 

Then the fierce trumpet-flourish 

From earth to heaven arose, 
The kites know well the long stern swell 

That bids the Romans close. 
Then the good sword of Aulus 

Was lifted up to slay : 
Then, like a crag down Apennine, 

Rushed Auster through the fray. 
But under those strange horsemen 

Still thicker lay the slain ; 
And after those strange horses 

Black Auster toiled in vain. 
Behind them Rome's long battle 

Came rolling on the foe, 
Ensigns dancing wild above, 

Blades all in line below. 
So comes the Po in flood-time 

Upon the Celtic plain : 
So comes the squall, blacker than night, 

Upon the Adrian main. 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 133 

Now by our sire Quirinus, 

It was a goodly sight 
To see the thirty standards 

Swept down the tide of flight. 
So flies the spray of Adria 

When the black squall doth blow; 
So corn-sheaves in the flood-time 

Spin down the whirling Po. 
False Sextus to the mountains 

Turned first his horse 's head ; 
And fast fled Ferentinum, 

And fast Lanuvium fled. 
The horsemen of Nomentum 

Spurred hard out of the fray ; 
The footmen of Yelitrae 

Threw shield and spear away. 
And underfoot was trampled, 

Amidst the mud and gore, 
The banner of proud Tusculum, 

That never stooped before: 
And down went Flavius Faustus, 

Who led his stately ranks 
From where the apple blossoms wave 

On Anio's echoing banks, 
And Tullus of Arpinum, 

Chief of the Volscian aids, 
And Metius with the long fair curls, 

The love of Anxur's maids, 
And the white head of Vulso, 

The great Arician seer, 
And Nepos of Laurentum, 

The hunter of the deer ; 



134 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

And in the back false Sextus 

Felt the good Roman steel, 
And wriggling in the dust he died, 

Like a worm beneath the wheel: 
And fliers and pursuers 

Were mingled in a mass; 
And far away the battle 

Went roaring through the pass. 

XXXVII 

Sempronius Atratinus 

Sat in the Eastern Gate, 
Beside him were three Fathers, 

Each in his chair of state — 
Fabius, whose nine stout grandsons 

That day were in the field, 
And Manlius, eldest of the Twelve 

Who keep the Golden Shield; 
And Sergius, the High Pontiff, 

For wisdom far renowned; 
In all Etruria's colleges 

Was no such Pontiff found. 
And all around the portal, 

And high above the wall, 
Stood a great throng of people, 

But sad and silent all; 
Young lads, and stooping elders 

That might not bear the mail, 
Matrons with lips that quivered, 

And maids with faces pale. 
Since the first gleam of daylight, 

Sempronius had not ceased 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 135 

To listen for the rushing 

Of horse-hoofs from the east. 
The mist of eve was rising, 

The sun was hastening down, 
When he was aware of a princely pair 

Fast pricking towards the town. 
So like they were, man never 

Saw twins so like before; 
Red with gore their armor was, 

Their steeds were red with gore. 

XXXVIII 

11 Hail to the great Asylum! 

Hail to the hill-tops seven! 
Hail to the fire that burns for aye, 

And the shield that fell from heaven ! 
This day, by Lake Regillus, 

Under the Porcian height, 
All in the lands of Tusculum 

Was fought a glorious fight. 
To-morrow your Dictator 

Shall bring in triumph home 
The spoils of thirty cities 

To deck the shrines of Rome ! " 

XXXIX 

Then burst from that great concourse 

A shout that shook the towers, 
And some ran north, and some ran south, 

Crying, ' ' The day is ours ! ' ' 
But on rode these strange horsemen, 

With slow and lordly pace ; 



136 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

And none who saw their bearing 

Durst ask their name or race. 
On rode they to the Forum, 

While laurel-boughs and flowers, 
From house-tops and from windows, 

Fell on their crests in showers. 
When they drew nigh to Vesta, 

They vaulted down amain, 
And washed their horses in the well 

That springs by Vesta's fane. 
And straight again they mounted, 

And rode to Vesta's door; 
Then, like a blast, away they passed, 

And no man saw them more. 



XL 

And all the people trembled, 

And pale grew every cheek ; 
And Sergius the High Pontiff 

Alone found voice to speak : 
" The gods who live forever 

Have fought for Rome to-day! 
These be the Great Twin Brethren 

To whom the Dorians pray. 
Back comes the Chief in triumph, 

Who, in the hour of fight, 
Hath seen the Great Twin Brethren 

In harness on his right. 
Safe comes the ship to haven, 

Through billows and through gales, 
If once the Great Twin Brethren 

Sit shining on the sails. 



AURIGA AND GEMINI 137 

Wherefore they washed their horses 

In Vesta's holy well, 
Wherefore they rode to Vesta's door, 

I know, but may not tell. 
Here, hard by Vesta's Temple, 

Build we a stately dome 
Unto the Great Twin Brethren 

Who fought so well for Rome. 
And when the months returning 

Bring back this day of fight, 
The proud Ides of Quintilis, 

Marked evermore with white, 
Unto the Great Twin Brethren 

Let all the people throng, 
With chaplets and with offerings, 

With music and with song; 
And let the doors and windows 

Be hung with garlands all, 
And let the knights be summoned 

To Mars without the wall: 
Thence let them ride in purple 

With joyous trumpet-sound, 
Each mounted on his war-horse, 

And each with olive crowned ; 
And pass in solemn order 

Before the sacred dome, 
Where dwell the Great Twin Brethren 

Who fought so well for Rome." 

— Thomas Babington Macaulay. 



THE TWO LIONS AND THE CRAB 

LEO— LEO MINOR— CANCER, THE CRAB 

Low in the east in February we have the Two Lions and 
the Crab following after the Twins. They are directly over- 
head in April, and are last seen in the west in July. 




Cancer or The Crab 
Praesepe V£>; : . 



The Sickle 



Leo Minor — 
The Little Lion 



Regulus 



Leo— 
The Lion 




Denebola 



Berenice's Hair 



/ 




And watch the Manger like a little mist; 
Far north, in Cancer's territory, it floats; 
Its confines are two faintly glimmering stars, 
One on the north, the other on the south. 



THE TWO LIONS AND THE CRAB 

The constellation of Leo, the Great Lion, lies back of 
the bowl of the Big Dipper. It can easily be located by 
the sickle-shaped cluster of stars in the Lion's shoulder. 
The end star in the handle of the sickle is of the first 
magnitude, and received from Copernicus the name 
Regulus (" The Little King," from Latin rex), because 
of the ancient belief that it ruled the affairs of heaven. 
The English often call it the Royal Star, and the 
Persians called it one of the Pour Royal Stars, or the 
Four Guardians of Heaven. The other guardians are 
Fomalhaut, Aldebaran, and Antares. The reason for 
calling these stars the Guardians is simple: each oc- 
cupies a quarter of the sky by itself; and all but Fo- 
malhaut lie very near the Ecliptic. See if you can find 
the Royal Four. 

At the tip of the Lion's tail is Denebola, the second 
brightest star in the constellation. Both Regulus and 
Denebola are like Sirius in being younger than our sun. 

Nearly all the ancient nations saw a lion in this con- 
stellation, and the Greeks thought it was the celebrated 
Nemaean lion slain by the hero Hercules, of whom they 
tell the story in this fashion. Hercules, the powerful, 
dwelt at the court of his cousin, King Eurystheus, but 
the King dreaded him and wished his destruction. He 
bade Hercules go slay the Nemaean lion and bring back 
its carcass. He thought Hercules could never escape 
alive, for this lion was the largest, strongest, and fiercest 

143 



\ A 



144 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

ever heard of in the world. Hercules soon found the 
lion, and shot arrow after arrow at it, but they simply 
fell to the ground without being able to pierce its hide, 
and did not even annoy it. Finally one pricked sharply 
enough to rouse the lion's rage, and with a rush it 
made for Hercules. The hero had only just time enough 
to pull up a young oak tree by the roots to use for a 
club before the lion sprang at him. He wielded his club 
mightily, beating the lion backwards, and following it 
clear into its den. There he grappled with it, and, after 
a fearful wrestle, got his arms about its body and 
crushed it to death. He threw the corpse over his 
shoulders and held the paws around his neck, and thus 
he returned to the court, where Eurystheus was more 
terrified than before. The lion's skin was so tough 
that Hercules constantly wore it after that as a sort of 
armor. 

The Lesser Lion lies between Leo and the Dipper. 
It is a small constellation; and is inconspicuous both 
to the naked eye and to the telescope, since it contains 
no bright stars ; three are of the fourth magnitude, and 
six of the fifth. It has no myth associated with it, as 
it was invented in the seventeenth century by Helvetius 
to occupy an empty space among the constellations. 

Between the Lion and the Twins is the famous Cancer, 
or Crab. It is a constellation without any bright stars 
(there are five of the fourth magnitude), and we can 
but wonder at its great antiquity. In its center, be- 
tween two of the fourth magnitude stars, shines a sil- 
very spot called Praesepe, or the Manger. Homer and 
Aratus sang of the Manger as a weather portent, and 
in the days of Galileo it became famous because it fur- 
nished Galileo one of his first assurances that there 



THE TWO LIONS AND THE CRAB 145 

are multitudes of stars not visible to the naked eye. 
He wrote: " Praesepe is not one star only, but a mass 
of more than forty small stars." This was a wonderful 
discovery in the days when nobody else had seen more 
stars than you or I can see unaided, and when it was 
generally believed that all the stars in existence were 
visible to the naked eye. Now anybody with a large 
opera or field glass can see all that Galileo saw, and be 
delighted with the sight — but not as Galileo was de- 
lighted, because he was the first man ever to see these 
wonders ; 

" Then felt I as some watcher of the skies 
When a new planet swims into his ken." 

Praesepe has another honor, also. It is said that the 
most ancient scientific observation of Jupiter known to 
us was made by Ptolemy, eighty-three years after the 
death of Alexander the Great, when Jupiter happened to 
pass near Praesepe and eclipsed the star now called 
Delta in the Crab. In English folklore Praesepe is 
called the Beehive, which it resembles more closely than 
a manger. 

Cancer is also associated with the myth of Hercules, 
whose own constellation we shall study later on. Cancer 
represents the crab that Hera (or Juno) sent to bite 
the foot of Hercules when he was struggling with the 
Hydra in the Lernaean marshes. Hercules stepped on 
it and crushed it; and Juno was so grieved at its death 
that she persuaded Zeus to translate it to the sky as a 
constellation. 



BERENICES HAIR 

COMA BERENICES 

Rising very shortly after the Lion is the constellation of 
Berenice's Hair. Its season lasts from February to July. 



BERENICE'S HAIR 

If you will pass a line from the star Benetnasch, on 
the tip of the Great Bear's tail, to Denebola, the 
star on the tip of the Lion's tail, it will pass through the 
glimmering little constellation of Berenice's Hair about 
two-thirds of the way from Benetnasch to Denebola. 
Berenice 's Hair contains no bright stars. It has several 
of the fourth and fifth magnitudes, and many of the 
sixth magnitude that make it twinkle charmingly. An 
opera glass or a small field glass makes a very pretty 
sight of this host of tiny stars. 

The name Berenice's Hair, or Coma Berenices, has 
been derived from an Egyptian fable. Ptolemy, a king 
of Egypt, was away from home on a long war. Berenice, 
his bride, grieved greatly over his absence and the 
dangers he must encounter. She finally vowed to the 
gods that she would consecrate her wonderful hair to 
Venus if they would bring her husband safely home. 
Ptolemy returned, and Berenice fulfilled her promise. 
But Venus was not willing that such a treasure should 
remain even in her temple ; so she sent for it and had it 
placed as a constellation among the stars. There is a 
story that the locks of Berenice did not consider it as 
great an honor to be in the sky as on the head of the 
beautiful Queen, and often lamented that they could not 
return to her. 



149 



150 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

BERENICE'S HAIR 

The sage that did with curious cunning trace 

The lights that gleam through all the vast of space, 

Numbered the constellations o'er, and knew 

The rising of the stars, their setting too; 

What veils the sun's resplendence in eclipse, 

And why at stated times each planet dips 

Beyond our ken; how love's delicious power 

Drew Thivia down from her aerial bower 

To Latinos' cave; — he, Conon, sage divine, 

Descried me, where afar in heaven I shine: 

I 'mongst the stars myself resplendent now, 

I who once curled on Berenice's brow, 

The tress which she, uplifting her fair arms, 

To many a god devoted, so from harms 

They might protect her new-found royal mate. 



How wert thou racked with terror and with pain, 

'Til reason tottered in thy tortured brain! 

Yet from thy tenderest maiden years had I 

Thy spirit known magnanimous and high. 

Didst thou that deed of noble note forget, 

Which won for thee thy royal lord, and yet 

Shines on the roll of fame pre-eminent? 

But, oh thy grief when forth thy husband went ! 

What words of anguish! mighty Jove, what sighs! 

What tears by fingers wan dashed from thine eyes! 



Then, then it was for thy dear spouse that thou 
Thy crisped hairs to all the gods didst vow, 



BERENICE'S HAIR 151 

With blood of bulls, to speed him home, and bring 
All Asia vassal bound to Egypt's king. 

Thy prayers were heard; and 'mongst celestials now 
With luster new I pay thy pristine vow ; 
And yet reluctantly, oh queen most fair, 
I parted from thee! by thyself, I swear, 
And by thy head! and dire shall be his doom, 
Who may to slight that awful oath presume! 
But what can stand against the might of steel? 
'Twas that which made the proudest mountain reel, 
Of all by Thia's radiant sun surveyed, 
What time the Mede a new Aegean made, 
And hosts barbaric steered their galleys tall 
Through rifted Athos' adamantine wall. 
When things like these the power of steel confess, 
What help or refuge for a woman's tress? 
Oh, Jove ! be all the Chalyb race accurst — 
All, and whoe'er through earth's recesses first 
Tracked out the veined ore, and in the fire 
First shaped and tempered it to uses dire ! 

Whilst yet my sister tresses, parted late 
From me they loved, were mourning o'er my fate, 
On winged steed, by beating pinions driven, 
Swept Ethiop Memnon's brother down from heaven, 
And bore me from Arsinoe 's shrine away, 
Up through the regions of eternal day. 
There did he lay me on chaste Venus' breast; 
For she it was had sped him on his quest, 
That Ariadne's crown should not alone 
Gleam in the forehead of the starry zone, 
But we, the golden spoils that decked her shrine, 
Should there as well with equal radiance shine. 



152 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Still with the tears of my loved mistress wet, 
Was I amidst the stars primeval set : 
Hard by the Virgin's light, and Lions wild, 
And to Callisto near, Lycaon's child, 
I wheel into the west, and lead the way 
Where slow Bootes, with a coy delay, 
Beneath the mighty ocean dips his light. 
But though the footsteps of the gods by night 
Trample me down, yet am I with the dawn 
Back to the breast of fair-haired Tethys drawn. 
Yet be not wroth, Rhamnusian maid, to hear 
The truth I scorn to hide in vulgar fear; 
Though on the avowal all the stars cry shame, 
The yearning which I feel I must proclaim. 
My state so glads me not, but I deplore 
I ne'er may grace my mistress' forehead more, 
With whom consorting in her virgin bloom, 
I bathed in sweets, and quaffed the rich perfume. 



But oh, my queen ! when lifting up thy gaze 
Here to the stars, with torches' festal blaze 
Thou dost propitiate Venus, let not me 
Be all forgotten or unseen by thee. 
Nay, rather unto me, who once was all 
Thine own, with bounteous offerings duly call. 
Once all thine own? Ay, still thine, only thine! 
Why am I doomed among the stars to shine? 
Oh, on the forehead of my queen to play 
Once more ! Grant this, and then Aquarius may 
Next to Orion blaze, and all the world 
Of starry orbs be into chaos whirled ! 

— Catullus, translated by Theodore Martin. 



BOOTES— ARIADNE— HERCULES 

From April till early October, the constellations of Bootes 
and Hercules, with the Northern Crown — or Ariadne's Crown 
— lying between them, can be seen crossing the sky, following 
close after the Lions. They are nearly overhead in early 
July. 



• Cor Caroli 



Bootes 




^<*^® Northern Crown 
\T or 

^Ariadne's Crown 




Hercules 



. . . the immortals divine 
Loved well that maid. In the midst of the firmament is set 

her sign, 
A crown of stars, which they name Ariadne's diadem, 
All night circling amidst the signs that the heavens begem. 



BOOTES, VIRGO, AND HERCULES 

The name of the constellation Bootes is interesting 
because of its great age, coming down to us from deep 
antiquity. It occurs in a line in Homer 's Odyssey, sung 
probably a thousand years before Christ: 

" So he sat and cunningly guided the craft with the helm, 
nor did sleep fall upon his eyelids as he viewed the Pleiades 
and Bootes, that setteth late, and the Bear, which they like- 
wise call the Wain, which turneth ever in one place and 
alone hath no part in the baths of Ocean. This star, Calypso, 
the fair goddess bade him keep ever on the left as he traversed 
the deep." — Odyssey, Book V. 

Bootes has been represented as a plowman and as 
a herdsman, but is usually pictured as a tall man holding 
in leash two dogs, which are tugging away, trying to 
reach the Great Bear, and driving it round and round 
the pole. The dogs, known as the Hunting Dogs, have 
so few stars in them that they are not always shown 
on the maps as a constellation. Their brightest star, 
named Cor Caroli, is a beautiful star of the third mag- 
nitude, and can be found just back of the handle of the 
Big Dipper. Its name means " Charles's Heart," and 
was given it by the astronomer Halley because it is 
said to have shone out with unusual brilliancy at the 
time of the coronation of Charles II. 

" That star that at your birth shone out so bright, 
It stain'd the duller sun's meridian light, 

157 



158 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Did once again its potent fires renew, 
Guiding our eyes to find and worship you." 

— Dryden: Astraea Redux. 

The Hunting Dogs, or Canes Venatici, were invented by 
Helvetius in the seventeenth century; consequently they 
possess no mythology, even though they are associated 
with English history. A line curving downward from 
the end star in the handle of the Big Dipper will reach 
the wonder, Arcturus, a star in Bootes, the one first- 
magnitude star of the constellation, and the rival of 
Vega and Capella in brightness. These three stars are 
of almost exactly the same magnitude, all being a very 
little below the standard zero magnitude. Arcturus is 
classed in color with the red stars, and when near the 
horizon it flames splendidly, but when high in the 
heavens its color seems to fade. It is a great sun, ex- 
ceeding ours in intrinsic brilliancy at least one hundred 
times, and showing by its spectrum that it is older than 
our sun. Arcturus is one of the " runaway stars, " 
and is moving so rapidly — from two hundred to three 
hundred miles per second! — that since the days of 
Ptolemy it has seemed to move the distance of twice the 
disk of the moon. 

South of Bootes is the large constellation which has 
borne the name of the " Virgin " (Virgo in Latin) 
among people in all parts of the earth; in China, 
for example, it is the Frigid Maiden. In pictures the 
Virgin is usually drawn with a head of wheat in her 
left hand. In the constellation the wheat is represented 
by Spica — the name signifying a " wheat ear " — the 
only first-magnitude star of the group. Four bright 
stars, Spica in Virgo, Denebola in the Lion's tail, Cor 



BOOTES— VIRGO— HERCULES 159 

Caroli in the Hunting Dogs, and Arcturus in Bootes, 
form a geometrical figure called the " Diamond of 
Virgo. ' ' Spica, like Sirius, Rigel, and Vega, belongs to 
the younger order of suns, and is also of enormous size 
like them. 

Between Bootes and Lyra, and about equally as far as 
they are from the Pole, is a large constellation with no 
striking configurations and no first-magnitude stars. Its 
Beta is of the second magnitude, and there are several 
stars of the third. In spite of all this, however, the con- 
stellation has attracted attention ; many people in many 
lands have had myths and legends about it, and have 
used many names for it. We now call it Hercules, after 
the hero of whom the ancient Greeks tell many mar- 
velous tales. And they are extremely interesting tales, 
too; I have already related one, and I wish I might 
tell you many, but only enough space is left for me 
to indicate them briefly. You should by all means try 
to learn more of them for yourself. 

Hercules was the great-grandson of Perseus. The 
disasters of his life were brought upon him through 
the dislike of Juno, who became jealous of his mother. 
When he was a babe in the cradle, she sent two serpents 
to kill him, but he strangled both of them. Twice Juno 
sent fits of insanity upon him; in the first he killed 
his own three children, and in the second he slew his 
friend Iphitus. These fearful crimes had to be ex- 
piated. For the first he became the servant of his 
cowardly cousin Eurystheus, and by him was made to 
perform the famous " Twelve Labors," some of which 
were slaying the Nemaean lion, killing the Lernaean 
hydra, cleansing the Augean stables, fetching the girdle 
of the Queen of the Amazons, stealing the apples of the 



160 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Hesperides, and seizing and bringing the dog Cerberus 
from Hades to the upper world. For his second crime 
he had to become slave to the Queen of the Lydians, who 
disgraced him by giving him a distaff and setting him 
to spin among her maidens for three years. His phys- 
ical strength was most extraordinary. Once he sup- 
ported on his own shoulders the whole dome of heaven 
to enable Atlas to get away to wade through the ocean 
to the Garden of the Hesperides for him. His kindness 
of heart was still greater. In ignorance he once made 
an unseemly noise in the house of Admetus just as Al- 
cestis, the wife of Admetus, was being buried ; when in- 
formed of the truth, he was so sorry that he atoned 
for his fault by leaping into the open grave and follow- 
ing her spirit to the lower regions, where he compelled 
Pluto to restore Alcestis alive to her husband. But 
greatest of all was his pity and his sense of justice. Led 
by a voice of agony, he climbed the steepest, most rugged 
heights of the Caucasus mountains, to the rock where 
Prometheus was bound with chains to a precipice. Her- 
cules slew the vulture of Remorse, that ate ever at the 
heart of the giant; and struck the icy chains off the 
wrists and ankles of Prometheus (whose name means 
" Foresight "), the kindest friend mankind had ever 
had. When the time came to die, Hercules heaped up a 
huge pile of wood, set fire to it, and placed himself on its 
top ; but just as the flames were about to reach the hero 's 
tortured body, a cloud came down from the sky and 
bore him off to heaven. 



BOOTES— VIRGO— HERCULES 161 

BOOTES AND VIRGO 

Hard on the traces of the greater Bear 
Presses Bootes in his swift career. 
'Mong many gems, more brilliant than the rest, 
Arcturus glows upon his belted waist. 
Through the long day he drives the Arctic Wain, 
And sinks reluctant in the western main. 

Rising beneath Bootes' feet, admire 
That beauteous form in maidenly attire. 
In her left hand a golden spike she bears : 
Glitter with sparkling gems her yellow hairs. 
Art thou, fair Virgin, daughter of that fam'd 
Immortal sage of old, Astraeus nam'd, 
With skilful hand who mapp'd the starry sky, 
Plumbing its dark abyss with philosophic eye? 
Or art thou, Goddess, she of heavenly birth, 
Who condescended once to dwell on earth, 
Astraea calPd, in fabled days of old — 
Alas! forever gone — the Poet's age of gold? 
Then Justice rul'd supreme, man's only guide, — 
No fraud — no violence — no pride. 
No sailor ventur'd then to distant clime, 
And brought back foreign wealth and foreign crime. 
All tended then the flock, or tilled the soil, 
And milk and fruit repaid their easy toil; 
All happy — equal, as the poets sing ; 
No fierce seditious mob — no tyrant king, — 
But soon these days of innocence were gone: 
In his sire's place arose a viler son 
Of silver race. Then to the mountain's glen 
Fair Justice fled. Yet still at times were seen 
Her angel figure and her godlike mien. 



162 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

But when she view'd the crowded city's throng — 

" The proud man's contumely, the poor man's 

wrong " — 
Vex'd was her righteous soul. " Mortals, farewell, 
Farewell," she said, " no more with man I dwell. 
Ye of your sires a vile degenerate race, 
Your offspring you, their fathers, will disgrace. 
War soon will desolate these fruitful lands, 
A brother's blood will stain a brother's hands. 
Rising to view I see a ghostly train — 
Revenge, Oppression, Woe, Despair, and Pain." 
She said ; and hastening to the mountain 's height 
Fled far away from mortal's longing sight. 
These men soon pass'd away, and in their place 
Far viler sons arose, the brazen race; 
They first the stubborn ore obedient made, 
And forg'd — unhallow'd skill — the murderous blade. 
The patient ox, long wont to till the soil, 
To tread the corn, and share his master's toil, 
Dragg'd from his stall — poor harmless, slaughter 'd 

beast — 
Gave to his cruel lord a bloody feast. 
Justice was shock 'd, the bloodstain 'd earth she flies; 
Jove bade her welcome to her native skies ; 
And near Bootes take her honor 'd place, 
Where men might still adore her angel face. 
Sparkle her golden wings with crystal light ; 
One gem they bear superlatively bright : 
It rolls neath Leo's tail, and may compare 
With the fam'd stars that deck the greater Bear. 
One gem upon her snow-white shoulder shines: 
One clasps the silken girdle of her loins: 



BOOTES— ARIADNE— HERCULES 163 

One decks her bending knee ; and in her hand 
Glitters her golden spike like fiery brand. 
Many less brilliant stars, by name unknown, 
Spangle her vestments, and her forehead crown. 

— Aratus, translated by John Lamb. 



THE THREE GOLDEN APPLES 

When the old fellow heard who it was that had 
caught him, he saw with half an eye that it would be 
necessary to tell him everything that he wanted to know. 
The Old One was an inhabitant of the sea, and roamed 
about everywhere, like other seafaring people. Of 
course, he had often heard of the fame of Hercules, 
and of the wonderful things that he was constantly 
performing, in various parts of the earth, and how 
determined he always was to accomplish whatever he 
undertook. He therefore made no more attempts to 
escape, but told the hero how to find the garden of the 
Hesperides, and likewise warned him of many difficulties 
which must be overcome before he could arrive thither. 

' ' You must go on, thus and thus, ' ' said the Old Man 
of the Sea, after taking the points of the compass, " till 
you come in sight of a very tall giant who holds the sky 
on his shoulders. And the giant, if he happens to be in 
the humor, will tell you exactly where the garden of 
the Hesperides lies/' 

' ' And if the giant happens not to be in the humor, ' ' 
remarked Hercules, balancing his club on the tip of his 
finger, " perhaps I shall find means to persuade him." 

Thanking the Old Man of the Sea, and begging his 
pardon for having squeezed him so roughly, the hero 



164 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

resumed his journey. He met with a great many- 
strange adventures, which would be well worth your 
hearing, if I had leisure to narrate them as minutely 
as they deserve. 

It was in this journey, if I mistake not, that he en- 
countered a prodigious giant who was so wonderfully 
contrived by nature that every time he touched the earth 
he became ten times as strong as ever he had been be- 
fore. His name was Antaeus. You may see plainly 
enough that it was a very difficult business to fight 
with such a fellow, for as often as he got a knockdown 
blow, up he started again, stronger, fiercer, and abler 
to use his weapons than if his enemy had let him alone. 
Thus, the harder Hercules pounded the giant with his 
club, the further he seemed from winning the victory. 
I have sometimes argued with such people, but never 
fought with one. The only way in which Hercules 
found it possible to finish the battle was by lifting 
Antaeus off his feet into the air, and squeezing and 
squeezing and squeezing him until finally the strength 
was quite squeezed out of his enormous body. 

When this affair was finished, Hercules continued his 
travels and went to the land of Egypt, where he was 
taken prisoner, and would have been put to death if he 
had not slain the king of the country and made his 
escape. Passing through the deserts of Africa and go- 
ing as fast as he could, he arrived at last on the shore 
of the great ocean. And here, unless he could walk on 
the crests of the billows, it seemed as if his journey must 
needs be at an end. 

Nothing was before him save the foaming, dashing, 
measureless ocean. But suddenly, as he looked toward 
the horizon, he saw something, a great way off, which 



BOOTES— ARIADNE— HERCULES 165 

he had not seen the moment before. It gleamed very 
brightly, almost as you may have beheld the round, 
golden disk of the sun when it rises or sets over the 
edge of the world. It evidently drew nearer, for at 
every instant this wonderful object became larger and 
more lustrous. At length it had come so nigh that Her- 
cules discovered it to be an immense cup or bowl made 
either of gold or burnished brass. How it had got afloat 
upon the sea is more than I can tell you. There it was, 
at all events, rolling on the tumultuous billows, which 
tossed it up and down and heaved their foamy tops 
against its sides, but without ever throwing their spray 
over the brim. 

" I have seen many giants in my time," thought 
Hercules, " but never one that would need to drink his 
wine out of a cup like this." 

And, true enough, what a cup it must have been ! It 
was as large — as large — but, in short, I am afraid to say 
how immeasurably large it was. To speak within 
bounds, it was ten times larger than a great mill-wheel, 
and, all of metal as it was, it floated over the heaving 
surges more lightly than an acorn-cup down the brook. 
The waves tumbled it onward until it grazed against the 
shore within a short distance of the spot where Her- 
cules was standing. 

As soon as this happened, he knew what was to be 
done, for he had not gone through so many remarkable 
adventures without learning pretty well how to conduct 
himself whenever anything came to pass a little out of 
the common rule. It was just as clear as daylight that 
this marvelous cup had been set adrift by some unseen 
power and guided hitherward in order to carry Hercules 
across the sea on his way to the garden of the Hes- 



166 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

perides. Accordingly, without a moment's delay he 
clambered over the brim and slid down on the inside, 
where, spreading out his lion's skin, he proceeded to 
take a little repose. He had scarcely rested until now 
since he bade farewell to the damsels on the margin of 
the river. The waves dashed with a pleasant and ring- 
ing sound against the circumference of the hollow cup ; 
it rocked lightly to and fro, and the motion was so 
soothing that it speedily rocked Hercules into an agree- 
able slumber. 

His nap had probably lasted a good while when the 
cup chanced to graze against a rock, and in consequence 
immediately resounded and reverberated through its 
golden or brazen substance a hundred times as loudly 
as ever you heard a church bell. The noise awoke 
Hercules, who instantly started up and gazed around 
him, wondering whereabouts he was. He was not long 
in discovering that the cup had floated across a great 
part of the sea, and was approaching the shore of what 
seemed to be an island. And on that island what do 
you think he saw? 

No, you will never guess it — not if you were to try 
fifty thousand times! It positively appears to me that 
this was the most marvelous spectacle that had ever 
been seen by Hercules in the whole course of his wonder- 
ful travels and adventures. It was a greater marvel 
than the hydra with nine heads, which kept growing 
twice as fast as they were cut off; greater than the six- 
legged man-monster ; greater than Antseus ; greater than 
anything that was ever beheld by anybody before or 
since the days of Hercules, or than anything that re- 
mains to be beheld by travelers in all time to come. It 
was a giant! 



BOOTES— ARIADNE— HERCULES 167 

But such an intolerably big giant! A giant as tall 
as a mountain; so vast a giant that the clouds rested 
about his midst like a girdle, and hung like a hoary 
beard from his chin, and flitted before his huge eyes so 
that he could neither see Hercules nor the golden cup 
in which he was voyaging. And, most wonderful of all, 
the giant held up his great hands and appeared to sup- 
port the sky, which, so far as Hercules could discern 
through the clouds, was resting upon his head! This 
does really seem almost too much to believe. 

Meanwhile the bright cup continued to float onward, 
and finally touched the strand. Just then a breeze wafted 
away the clouds from before the giant's visage, and 
Hercules beheld it with all its enormous features — eyes 
each of them as big as yonder lake, a nose a mile long, 
and a mouth of the same width. It was a countenance 
terrible from its enormity of size, but disconsolate and 
weary, even as you may see the faces of many people 
nowadays who are compelled to sustain burdens above 
their strength. What the sky was to the giant, such 
are the cares of earth to those who let themselves be 
weighed down by them. And whenever men undertake 
what is beyond the just measure of their abilities they 
encounter precisely such a doom as had befallen this 
poor giant. 

Poor fellow! He had evidently stood there a long 
while. An ancient forest had been growing and de- 
caying around his feet, and oak trees of six or seven 
centuries old had sprung from the acorns and forced 
themselves between his toes. 

The giant now looked down from the far height of 
his great eyes, and perceiving Hercules, roared out, in a 



168 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

voice that resembled thunder proceeding out of the cloud 
that had just flitted away from his face: 

' ' Who are you, down at my feet there ? And whence 
do you come in that little cup ? ' ' 

" I am Hercules! " thundered back the hero, in a 
voice pretty nearly or quite as loud as the giant's 
own. " And I am seeking for the garden of the Hes- 
perides! " 

1 ' Ho ! ho ! ho ! " roared the giant, in a fit of immense 
laughter. ' ' That is a wise adventure, truly ! ' ' 

" And why not? " cried Hercules, getting a little 
angry at the giant's mirth. " Do you think I am 
afraid of the dragon with a hundred heads? " 

Just at this time, while they were talking together, 
some black clouds gathered about the giant's middle and 
burst into a tremendous storm of thunder and light- 
ning, causing such a pother that Hercules found it im- 
possible to distinguish a word. Only the giant's im- 
measurable legs were to be seen, standing up into the 
obscurity of the tempest, and now and then a mo- 
mentary glimpse of his whole figure mantled in a vol- 
ume of mist. He seemed to be speaking most of the 
time, but his big, deep, rough voice chimed in with the 
reverberations of the thunder-claps and rolled away over 
the hills like them. Thus by talking out of season the 
foolish giant expended an incalculable quantity of breath 
to no purpose, for the thunder spoke quite as intelligibly 
as he. 

At last the storm swept over as suddenly as it had 
come. And there again was the clear sky, and the 
weary giant holding it up, and the pleasant sunshine 
beaming over his vast height and illuminating it against 
the background of the sullen thunder-clouds. So far 



BOOTES— ARIADNE— HERCULES 169 

above the shower had been his head that not a hair of it 
was moistened by the raindrops. 

When the giant could see Hercules still standing on 
the seashore, he roared out to him anew: 

1 ' I am Atlas, the mightiest giant in the world ! And 
I hold the sky upon my head ! ' ' 

" So I see," answered Hercules. " But can you show 
me the way to the garden of the Hesperides ? ' ' 

" What do you want there? " asked the giant. 

" I want three of the golden apples," shouted Her- 
cules, " for my cousin, the king." 

" There is nobody but myself," quoth the giant, 
' ' that can go to the garden of the Hesperides and gather 
the golden apples. If it were not for this little busi- 
ness of holding up the sky, I would make half a dozen 
steps across the sea and get them for you. ' ' 

' ' You are very kind, ' ' replied Hercules. ' ' And can- 
not you rest the sky upon a mountain? " 

" None of them are quite high enough," said Atlas, 
shaking his head. ' ' But if you were to take your stand 
on the summit of that nearest one, your head would be 
pretty nearly on a level with mine. You seem to be a 
fellow of some strength. What if you should take my 
burden on your shoulders while I do your errand for 
you? " 

Hercules, as you must be careful to remember, was a 
remarkably strong man; and, though it certainly re- 
quires a great deal of muscular power to uphold the sky, 
yet, if any mortal could be supposed capable of such an 
exploit, he was the one. Nevertheless, it seemed so dif- 
ficult an undertaking that for the first time in his life 
he hesitated. 

" Is the sky very heavy? " he inquired. 



170 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

" Why, not particularly so at first," answered the 
giant, shrugging his shoulders, " but it gets to be a 
little burdensome after a thousand years." 

" And how long a time," asked the hero, " will it take 
you to get the golden apples ? ' ' 

1 ' Oh, that will be done in a few moments, ' ' cried At- 
las. " I shall take ten or fifteen miles at a stride, and 
be at the garden and back again before your shoulders 
begin to ache. ' ' 

" Well, then," answered Hercules, " I will climb the 
mountain behind you there and relieve you of your 
burden. ' ' 

The truth is, Hercules had a kind heart of his own, 
and considered that he should be doing the giant a 
favor by allowing him this opportunity for a ramble. 
And, besides, he thought that it would be still more 
for his own glory if he could boast of upholding the sky 
than merely to do so ordinary a thing as to conquer a 
dragon with a hundred heads. Accordingly, without 
more words, the sky was shifted from the shoulders of 
Atlas and placed upon those of Hercules. 

When this was safely accomplished, the first thing 
that the giant did was to stretch himself ; and you may 
imagine what a prodigious spectacle he was then. Next, 
he slowly lifted one of his feet out of the forest that 
had grown up around it, then the other. Then all at 
once he began to caper and leap and dance for joy at his 
freedom, flinging himself nobody knows how high into 
the air, and floundering down again with a shock that 
made the earth tremble. Then he laughed — ho ! ho ! ho ! 
— with a thunderous roar that was echoed from the 
mountains far and near, as if they and the giant had 
been so many rejoicing brothers. When his joy had a 



BOOTES— ARIADNE— HERCULES 171 

little subsided he stepped into the sea — ten miles at the 
first stride, which brought him midleg deep; and ten 
miles at the second, when the water came just above his 
knees ; and ten miles more at the third, by which he was 
immersed nearly to his waist. This was the greatest 
depth of the sea. 

Hercules watched the giant as he still went onward, 
for it was really a wonderful sight, this immense human 
form more than thirty miles off, half -hidden in the ocean, 
but with his upper half as tall and misty and blue as a 
distant mountain. At last the gigantic shape faded en- 
tirely out of view. And now Hercules began to con- 
sider what he should do in case Atlas should be drowned 
in the sea, or if he were to be stung to death by the 
dragon with the hundred heads which guarded the 
golden apples of the Hesperides. If any such mis- 
fortune were to happen, how could ,he ever get rid of 
the sky? And, by the by, its weight began already to be 
a little irksome to his head and shoulders. 

" I really pity the poor giant/' thought Hercules. 
" If it wearies me so much in ten minutes, how must 
it have wearied him in a thousand years ! ' ' 

Oh, my sweet little people, you have no idea what a 
weight there was in that same blue sky which looks so 
soft and aerial above our heads! And there, too, was 
the bluster of the wind, and the chill and watery clouds, 
and the blazing sun, all taking their turns to make 
Hercules uncomfortable. He began to be afraid that 
the giant would never come back. He gazed wistfully 
at the world beneath him and acknowledged to himself 
that it was a far happier kind of life to be a shepherd 
at the foot of a mountain than to stand on its dizzy 
6ummit and bear up the firmament with his might and 



172 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

main. For, of course, as you will easily understand, 
Hercules had an immense responsibility on his mind, as 
well as a weight on his head and shoulders. Why, if he 
did not stand perfectly still and keep the sky im- 
movable, the sun would perhaps be put ajar ! Or, after 
nightfall, a great many of the stars might be loosened 
from their places and shower down like fiery rain upon 
the people's heads! And how ashamed would the hero 
be if, owing to his unsteadiness beneath its weight, the 
sky should crack and show a great fissure quite across it ! 

I know not how long it was before, to his unspeakable 
joy, he beheld the huge shape of the giant, like a cloud, 
on the far-off edge of the sea. At his nearer approach 
Atlas held up his hand, in which Hercules could per- 
ceive three magnificent golden apples as big as pump- 
kins, all hanging from one branch. 

1 ' I am glad to see you again, ' ' shouted Hercules 
when the giant was within hearing. " So you have got 
the golden apples? " 

" Certainly, certainly, " answered Atlas; " and very 
fair apples they are. I took the finest that grew on 
the tree, I assure you. Ah, it is a beautiful spot, that 
garden of the Hesperides ! Yes, and the dragon with a 
hundred heads is a sight worth any man 's seeing. After 
all, you had better have gone for the apples yourself." 

" No matter," replied Hercules. " You have had a 
pleasant ramble and have done the business as well as I 
could. I heartily thank you for your trouble. And 
now, as I have a long way to go and am rather in haste, 
and as the king my cousin is anxious to receive the 
golden apples, will you be kind enough to take the sky 
off my shoulders again? " 

" Why, as to that," said the giant, chucking the 




Hercules and the Golden Apples 

(illustration by Frank C. Pape from Storr's "Half a Hundred Hero Tales.") 



BOOTES— ARIADNE— HERCULES 173 

golden apples into the air twenty miles high or there- 
abouts, and catching them as they came down — " as to 
that, my good friend, I consider you a little unreason- 
able. Cannot I carry the golden apples to the king your 
cousin much quicker than you could ? As his majesty is 
in such a hurry to get them, I promise you to take my 
longest strides. And, besides, I have no fancy for 
burdening myself with the sky just now." 

Here Hercules grew impatient and gave a great shrug 
of his shoulders. It being now twilight, you might have 
seen two or three stars tumble out of their places. 
Everybody on earth looked upward in affright, thinking 
that the sky might be going to fall next. 

" Oh, that will never do! " cried Giant Atlas with a 
great roar of laughter. " I have not let fall so many 
stars within the last five centuries. By the time you 
have stood there as long as I did you will begin to 
learn patience." 

" What! " shouted Hercules, very wrathfully, " do 
you intend to make me bear this burden forever? " 

" We will see about that one of these days," an- 
swered the giant. " At all events, you ought not to 
complain if you have to bear it the next hundred years, 
or perhaps the next thousand. I bore it a good while 
longer, in spite of the backache. Well, then, after a 
thousand years, if I happen to feel in the mood, we may 
possibly shift about again. You are certainly a very- 
strong man and can never have a better opportunity to 
prove it. Posterity will talk of you, I warrant it." 

" Pish! a fig for its talk! " cried Hercules, with an- 
other hitch of his shoulders. " Just take the sky upon 
your head one instant, will you? I want to make a 
cushion of my lion's skin for the weight to rest upon. 



174 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

It really chafes me and will cause unnecessary incon- 
venience in so many centuries as I am to stand here. ' ' 

" That's no more than fair, and I'll do it," quoth the 
giant; for he had no unkind feeling toward Hercules, 
and was merely acting with a too selfish consideration 
of his own ease. " For just five minutes, then, I'll 
take back the sky. Only for five minutes, recollect. I 
have no idea of spending another thousand years as I 
spent the last. Variety is the spice of life, say I. ' ' 

Ah, the thick-witted old rogue of a giant ! He threw 
down the golden apples and received back the sky from 
the head and shoulders of Hercules upon his own, where 
it rightly belonged. And Hercules picked up the three 
golden apples that were as big or bigger than pump- 
kins, and straightway set out on his journey homeward 
without paying the slightest heed to the thundering 
tones of the giant, who bellowed after him to come back. 
Another forest sprang up around his feet and grew an- 
cient there, and again might be seen oak trees of six or 
seven centuries old that had waxed thus aged betwixt 
his enormous toes. 

And there stands the giant to this day; or, at any 
rate, there stands a mountain as tall as he and which 
bears his name ; and when the thunder rumbles about its 
summit we may imagine it to be the voice of Giant At- 
las bellowing after Hercules. 

— Nathaniel Hawthorne. 



ARIADNE'S CROWN 

Ariadne's Crown — also called the Northern Crown or 
Corona Borealis — is a striking little group of stars in 
the form of a crescent, lying between Bootes and Her- 
cules. Alphecca, a star of the second magnitude, and 
the brightest in the constellation, shines in the front 
center of the crown, as the most precious star in the 
diadem. The Greeks tell us that the God Bacchus loved 
the beautiful Ariadne and married her. He gave her 
a crown of seven stars, and after her death the crown 
was placed in the sky to shine in her honor. 



THE CHAMPION OF ATHENS 

Aethra, a daughter of the King of Troezene, was 
the wife of a foreign prince, and the mother of an only 
child, a boy, whom they named Theseus. "While The- 
seus was still an infant, his father said one day to 
Aethra — 

" I am obliged to set off on a long and distant jour- 
ney, through countries infested by wild beasts and 
robbers. If I should never return, take care of our 
child, bring him up like a king's son, and send him to 
the city of Athens as soon as he grows strong enough 
to lift that stone. ' ' 

Aethra promised, and her husband left Troezene, never 
to return. 

Having given up all hope of seeing her husband again, 
Aethra devoted herself to obeying his last commands. 
She gave Theseus the education of a prince ; and every 
day, from the time he left her arms, she made him 
try to lift the stone. The child grew up to be the hand- 
somest, strongest, and bravest youth in all the land, so 
that he had not a rival of his own age in all manly sports 
and feats of arms. But he could no more move the 
stone than he could fly. 

At last, however, the moment came when the stone 
gave way a little. The next day he raised it a trifle 
further, and so on until he lifted it bodily from the 
ground, and rolled it away. Underneath it he found a 

177 



178 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

splendid sword, with a curiously carved hilt, unlike any 
he had ever seen. 

The time had, therefore, come for him to set out for 
Athens, according to his father's commands. His 
mother implored him to go by sea, and not by those 
perilous paths by which her husband had never re- 
turned. But Theseus was only tempted by the dangers ; 
and so, taking the sword with him, he set out for 
Athens overland. 

After a long journey through a wild and difficult 
country, he reached a village, where he sought for sup- 
per and a night's lodging. But the place seemed de- 
serted, and it was only after a long search that he dis- 
covered an old shepherd, of whom he asked where a 
traveler might find food and shelter. 

' ' Alas ! ' ' answered the shepherd, ' ' there is not a 
scrap of food left in the place, not a house left un- 
plundered. For Sciron has been here." 

" And who is Sciron? " asked Theseus. 

1 ' Ah, you must be a stranger, indeed ! Sciron is the 
chief of all the robbers. Do you see yonder castle 
among the mountains? That is where he lives, and 
thence he issues forth, when he wants food for his glut- 
tony, to plunder and lay waste all the country round. 
And he is as cruel and savage as he is greedy. Not 
content with carrying off our cattle and our stores of 
corn and wine, he seizes men and women, and makes 
them wait upon him while he feasts ; and when the feast 
is over, he amuses himself by throwing them from a 
high rock into the sea." 

' ' Thank you, ' ' said Theseus. * * Then I will sup with 
Sciron." And off he started for the robber's castle, 
leaving the amazed shepherd to think him a madman. 



ARIADNE'S CROWN 179 

It was a long climb to the castle, which stood on the 
peak of a high cliff looking down into the sea. Theseus 
knocked upon the gate with the hilt of his sword, and, 
when it was opened by a ferocious-looking brigand, an- 
nounced himself as a stranger who requested hospi- 
tality. 

' ' You Ve come to the right place for that ! ' ' said 
the brigand grimly. " Come with me." 

Theseus followed him into the hall, where broth was 
being brewed in caldrons, and a fat ox was being roasted 
whole. The robbers were all about, — some quarreling 
over their plunder, some sprawling about the floor. In 
the midst of all the steam and din sat the chief, a huge 
and cruel-looking brute, who Theseus did not need to 
be told was Sciron. 

" So you want hospitality, do you? " asked Sciron. 
" Very well, as you're a traveler, and don't know the 
ways of the castle, you shall be let off easily. Of course, 
you'll have to be thrown from the cliff after supper — 
that's the rule. But instead of being tortured, you 
shall only wash my feet for me and wait on me at table. 
You look as if you understood washing and how things 
ought to be served. Now, then, get some hot water and 
begin," he said, thrusting out a pair of feet which 
looked as if they had not been touched by water for 
years. 

A grinning robber brought a bowl of hot water. 
Theseus took it and threw it in the face of Sciron. 

1 1 That wants washing, too, ' ' said he. 

Sciron rushed at him ; but Theseus received him at the 
point of his sword, and the two fought furiously, while 
the robbers looked on, enjoying the game. Sciron was 
twice the size and weight of Theseus; but Theseus was 



180 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

the best swordsman in all Greece, and presently had him 
down. 

" There/' said he, pricking Sciron's throat with his 
sword, " you have had a lesson in manners. You shall 
wash my feet and wait on me before you go over the 
cliff after your victims. For I am not going away to 
leave a brigand like you alive behind me!" 

Sciron, like all such bullies, was a coward at heart, 
and his own men had no longer any respect for him 
now that he had been worsted by a stripling. Amid 
the laughter of the robbers, he had to wash the feet of 
Theseus, and to serve him humbly with meat and drink, 
and was finally punished for his many cruel murders by 
being thrown into the sea. 

Having received the thanks of the country for rid- 
ding it of such a scourge, Theseus traveled on till he 
came to another village, where he thought he would rest 
a little. 

No sooner had he entered the place, however, than 
he was surrounded by a number of armed men, who 
gave him to understand that he was their prisoner. 

" Is this the way you treat travelers in your coun- 
try? " asked he. 

" Assuredly," answered the captain of the troop. 
" You are in the country of King Cercyon, and the 
law is that no traveler may leave it until he has wrestled 
with the king. ' ' 

" I ask for nothing better," said Theseus. " What 
happens to the traveler if he conquers Cercyon? " 

' ' Then he may pass on. " 

" But if Cercyon conquers him? " 

" Then he is tortured till he dies." 



ARIADNE'S CROWN 181 

" It is strange," said Theseus, " that I never heard 
of such a law, or even of King Cercyon." 

11 Not at all strange," said the captain. " I don't 
see how you could have heard it, seeing that no traveler 
has ever lived to tell the tale. Cercyon has conquered 
and killed them all, as he will conquer and kill you. ' ' 

And when he saw Cercyon, Theseus could well believe 
it. The king was of immense height, with broad shoul- 
ders, and muscles that stood out like globes of iron. 
He smiled savagely when he saw Theseus, and stripped 
without a word. Theseus stripped also, and the two 
were soon clasping each other like a pair of fierce bears, 
or, rather, like a bear and a man. 

It was a tremendous struggle, with all the brute 
strength on the side of Cercyon. But Theseus knew a 
hundred turns and twists of which the savage chieftain 
knew nothing ; and at last, to the amazement of all who 
witnessed the struggle, Cercyon fell dead upon the 
ground, with a broken spine. Thenceforth every trav- 
eler might pass through that country safely and with- 
out fear. 

Theseus traveled on until he found himself benighted 
in a wild country, through which he wandered about 
until he reached a castle, where he craved a night's 
shelter. Here he was kindly received, and told that the 
lord of the castle and of the country round was one 
Procrustes, who never turned a traveler from his door; 
nay, even now there were two guests with him. And so 
it proved. Procrustes entertained Theseus and the 
other two travelers at supper pleasantly and generously, 
and when it was time to retire for the night, himself con- 
ducted them into a chamber, where a bed, with nothing 
remarkable about it, stood ready in a corner. 



182 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

" That is the guest-bed," said Procrustes; " and I 
hope it will fit you." 

" Fit us? " asked Theseus, puzzled. 

' ' Yes ; it is the law of the country that if the bed 
does not fit the traveler, the traveler must be made to 
fit the bed. Do you try the bed first," he said to one 
of the guests, the tallest of the three. 

The traveler lay down, but found the bed rather 
short, and had to draw up his knees a little. ' ' Be good 
enough to lie straight, ' ' said Procrustes. He did so, his 
feet appearing beyond the bottom. Instantly Procrustes, 
with a sharp hatchet, chopped them off, one after an- 
other. " You'll fit nicely now," said he. " It's your 
turn next," he said to the second traveler. 

This one thought himself safe; for, being short, his 
toes did not reach the bed's end by a full two inches. 
Procrustes gave a signal, and immediately two strong 
attendants seized the unfortunate man, one by the shoul- 
ders and the other by the legs, and proceeded to pull him 
out to the proper length, despite his yells of pain. 

' ' Stretch him on the rack, ' ' said Procrustes. ' ' Now, ' ' 
he said to Theseus, * ' it is your turn in the game, and I 
hope, for your sake, you will give less trouble than the 
rest of them." 

Theseus had been taken aback at first by these extraor- 
dinary proceedings; but he now perceived that he had 
fallen upon another of those brigand chiefs who in- 
fested the country, and who resembled ogres rather than 
mere cruel and bloodthirsty savages. 

So he drew his sword and closed with Procrustes; 
nor did he cease fighting till he had fitted the robber to 
his own bed by making him a whole head shorter. The 
robbers in the place, cowed by the death of their chief, 



ARIADNE'S CROWN 183 

submitted to Theseus, who went round the castle, and set 
at liberty hundreds of maimed victims of the slain mon- 
ster's cruelty. 

Having received such thanks as they could give him, 
he journeyed on and on until at last he reached Athens. 
What he was to do there he did not know ; but there was 
no need for him to ask. Somehow the fame of his 
deeds had flown before him, — how he had rid the coun- 
try of Sciron and Cercyon and Procrustes, and other 
wild beasts and brigands, and he was received as befitted 
his valor. 

Now the King of Athens at that time was Aegeus; 
and the queen was no other than the great and dreadful 
sorceress Medea, who had come to Athens after the 
murder of her children, and had married the king. 
Aegeus took a fancy to Theseus from the young 
stranger's first appearance in Athens, gave him a high 
place at court, and treated him as if he had been his 
own son. But with Medea it was different. She had a 
son of her own, and she was filled with jealousy lest 
Aegeus should make Theseus the heir to his throne. 
Moreover, she envied and hated him for his courage and 
his fame, in which he far surpassed her own son Me- 
dus ; and she feared him too, for she failed to bring him 
under her spells. So she plotted to destroy him in 
such a way that his death should never be brought home 
to her, just as she had made the daughters of Pelias the 
seeming murderesses of their own father. 

She, therefore, pretended a great admiration for 
Theseus, and got the king to hold a great festival in his 
honor. It was arranged that Aegeus, during the feast, 
should send him a golden cup filled with wine, in which 
Medea secretly steeped one of her deadliest poisons. 



184 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

All went as she had planned. Aegens sent the poi- 
soned goblet by one of the cup-bearers to Theseus, who 
stood up to drink the health of the king and queen. 
But 

" Hold! " suddenly cried Aegeus, starting; " what 
sword is that at your side? " 

Theseus put down the cup to answer: 

"It is the sword with which I fought my way to 
Athens. I wear it to-day as my sword of honor. ' ' 

" But how comes it at your side? " 

Then Theseus told the story of how it had been left 
by his unknown father under a stone at Troezene, and 
how his mother's name was Aethra. Scarcely had he 
finished, when Aegeus, leaving his throne, fell upon his 
neck, exclaiming: 

" I was that father! You are my first-born son, and 
the heir to my crown! " 

The Athenians, who already looked upon Theseus as 
their national hero, greeted their prince and future king 
with shouts of joy; and when the first excitement was 
over, Medea was seen no more. Enraged at the failure 
of her plot, and fearing discovery and vengeance, she 
vanished from Athens: some said they had seen her 
borne by dragons through the air. And this is the last 
of her. 

Freed from her evil influence, the old love of Aegeus 
for Aethra revived, and he could not make enough of 
his and Aethra 's son. But Theseus did not become idle, 
and became in all ways the champion and protector of 
his father's people. It was he who caught alive the 
famous wild bull of Marathon, which had ravaged the 
country for years, and sacrificed it to Minerva. He 
never spared himself, and he never failed. 



ARIADNE'S CROWN 185 

At last, however, drew nigh that evil hour of Athens 
— that day in every year when the seven youths and 
seven maidens had to be sent to King Minos of Crete to 
be devoured by the Minotaur. The rule was to choose 
the victims by lot: so that none felt safe who had sons 
and daughters young enough to suit the taste of the 
monster. The seven girls were first chosen. But when 
it came to drawing lots for the youths, Theseus said: 

" You need draw only six this year. I will myself 
be the seventh. It may be that I shall find a way to 
deliver Athens from this tribute ; if not, it is for a 
prince who cannot save his people to perish with them. ' ' 

Aegeus was in despair. But no entreaties could turn 
Theseus from his desperate resolve : neither the prayers 
of his own father, nor those of all the fathers and 
mothers in Athens, who would have drawn the seventh 
lot rather than that he who was the pride and hope of 
the city should go to certain destruction. The ship 
which bore the yearly victims to Crete always carried 
black sails in token of public mourning. Theseus, in 
order to leave a little hope behind him, promised that, 
if he came back alive, he would hoist a white sail while 
returning, so that his safety might be seen from afar. 
Then, in solemn procession, amid the weeping of the 
crowd, the youths and maidens embarked in the black- 
sailed ship, Theseus leading them with the calmness of 
the only true courage — that which can, in cold blood, 
face danger for the sake of duty. None would have 
thought the worse of him had he stayed behind: and if 
he perished it would be as a mere victim, and without 
glory. Nor was it as if he were encouraged by any 
oracles, or helped by gifts from the gods. He is the 
first hero who was both a mere man and who never had 



186 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

any help but his own manfulness. And for all these rea- 
sons I think that his voyage to Crete is the finest story I 
have yet told. 

When the ship reached Crete, the fourteen victims 
were conducted to the Labyrinth, there to be impris- 
oned until they should be given to the Minotaur. As 
they passed before Minos and his Court, the king's 
youngest daughter, Ariadne, was filled with pity and 
love for Theseus, and set her thoughts to work how she 
might save him from his doom. But how in the world 
was such a thing to be done? None without the clue 
could either enter or escape from the maze: and even 
were that possible, it was not likely that the Minotaur 
would let himself be balked of his prey. 

But she watched and waited: she hovered round the 
Labyrinth night after night, examining every door : un- 
til at last she was rewarded by finding just within one 
of them, a little silken skein hidden away in a dark 
corner. The next night, having procured a torch and 
a sword, she bravely entered the door where the skein 
was, and, by winding up the silk, followed the clue. 
Through one twisting passage after another she wan- 
dered on and on, up and down long flight of steps, 
sometimes through great halls confused with columns, 
and sometimes through tunnels in which it was scarcely 
possible to stand. There seemed no end to the way. 
At last, however, the end of the silken thread told 
her that she had reached the inmost hall: and there 
her torch showed a sight that froze her with fear. 

The victims had been delivered over to the Minotaur. 
Crowded together in a corner of the hall were six youths 
and seven girls: stamping and tossing his horned head 



ARIADNE'S CROWN 187 

was the horrible monster, furious with hunger and 
the sight of human food. Between the Minotaur and 
his despairing prey stood Theseus, facing the monster, 
so that he, by being the first victim, might prolong the 
lives of the others. He had no hope : he could not even 
struggle, for his hands were bound behind him with 
cords. 

The sight of his courage gave back Ariadne hers. 
She darted forward, and cut his bonds with her sword. 
1 < ply J ' ' she cried : ' ' follow me — I have the clue ! ' ' 
But as soon as Theseus felt the touch of the steel, he 
seized the sword from her hand, and, instead of flying, 
set upon the Minotaur with such fury that the monster 
bellowed with rage, amazement, and pain. 

It was the hardest fight Theseus had ever fought : the 
wild bull of Marathon had been nothing to the Minotaur, 
who fought with a bull's strength and a man's skill and 
cunning. But the champion of Athens prevailed at 
last: and the monster fell dead with a groan which 
echoed through the Labyrinth like the bellowing of 
thunder. 

' ' It will wake the whole city ! ' ' cried Ariadne : ' ' fol- 
low me! " Theseus and his companions, scarce know- 
ing that they were saved, followed Ariadne, who wound 
up the clue as she ran. When they reached the en- 
trance-gate, the alarm of their escape had been given. 
Making straight for the shore, they found their black- 
sailed ship, sped on board, and, thanks to a kindly 
wind, were out at sea before they could be pursued. 

The wind carried them to the island of Naxos: and 
here they remained — Theseus, Ariadne, and the rest — till 
the breeze should blow towards Athens. Such a breeze 



188 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

came in time ; and then Theseus set sail for home with 
his thirteen companions, leaving Ariadne behind, to her 
great sorrow. Nor can anything make me believe that 
he meant this for a real parting, or that she thought so. 
One can think of many reasons why she should remain 
in Naxos for a while : it is quite certain that her power- 
ful father Minos, who had already conquered the Atheni- 
ans, and shown, by a cruel vengeance, how he hated 
them, would have attacked them again with all his fleets 
and armies if he had heard that they were giving shel- 
ter to a daughter who had betrayed him. So, leaving 
Ariadne safe in Naxos, Theseus returned to Athens as the 
savior of his city and the slayer of the Minotaur. 

Meanwhile his father, Aegeus, had been every day 
and all day long looking out to sea from the farthest 
point of the shore for the return from Crete of the ship 
of mourning. He had but little hope, but nobody can 
help having a little : nor did he quite despair, until one 
morning he saw on the horizon a vessel which he felt 
sure was the one he was watching for in such agony of 
mind. Nearer and nearer it came — alas! its sails were 
still as black as when it was outward bound. Theseus 
had forgotten to hoist the white sail which was to be the 
sign of safety. 

So Aegeus, giving up his son for lost, threw himself 
into the sea and perished, just when Theseus was within 
sight of home. And that sea is called the Aegean, or the 
Sea of Aegeus, to this day. And thus Theseus, to the 
joy of the people, but with sorrow in his own heart, 
found himself king. 

And the best of kings he made. The strength of his 
rule was only equaled by its gentleness. He made wise 
laws; he took care that all men received justice; he 




Theseus and the Minotaur 

(illustration by Frank C. Pape from Storr's "Half a Hundred Hero Tales.") 



ARIADNE'S CROWN 189 

honored the gods ; he obtained the respect and friendship 
of foreign nations; he taught the Athenians to be free, 
and to govern themselves, so that, when he died, they re- 
mained as great a people as while he was alive. 

He sent for his mother, Aethra, and kept her in all 
love and honor. I wish I could tell you that he sent 
for Ariadne also. But he never had any other wife: 
and she was lost to him. There is a strange, mysterious 
story of how, when she was left sorrowing in Naxos, the 
god Bacchus — the god of the bounty of Nature and of 
the joy that men and women find in her — comforted 
Ariadne, and made her his bride, and raised her above 
the earth, giving her a crown of seven stars, which is 
still to be seen in the sky, and is called " Ariadne's 
Crown." 

— R. E. Francillon: From Gods and Heroes. 
By permission of William Blackwood and 
Sons, Edinburgh. 

ARIADNE'S CROWN 

When Bacchus first beheld the desolate 
And sleeping Ariadne, wonder straight 
Was mixed with love in his great golden eyes; 
He turned to his Bacchantes in surprise, 
And said with guarded voice, — ' ' Hush ! strike no more 
Your brazen cymbals ; keep those voices still 
Of voice and pipe; " — the miserable Fair 
Awoke at last, sprang upward from the sands, 
And gazing wild on that wild throng that, stands 
Around, around her, and no Theseus there! — 
Her voice went moaning over shore and sea, 
Beside the halcyon's cry; she called her love; 



190 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

She named her hero, and raged maddeningly 

Against the brine of waters; and above, 
Sought the ship 's track, and cursed the hours she slept ; 
And still the chiefest execration swept 
Against Queen Paphia, mother of the ocean; 
And cursed and prayed by times in her emotion 
The winds all round . . . 
Her grief did make her glorious ; her despair 
Adorned her with its weight. Poor wailing child! 
She looked like Venus when the goddess smiled 
At liberty of godship, debonair; 
Poor Ariadne"! and her eyelids fair 
Hid looks beneath them lent her by Persuasion 
And every Grace, with tears of Love 's own passion. 
She wept long ; then she spake : — ' ' Sweet sleep did come 
While sweetest Theseus went. Oh, glad and dumb, 
I wish he had left me still ! for in my sleep 
I saw his Athens, and did gladly keep 
My new bride-state within my Theseus ' hall ; 
And heard the pomp of Hymen, and the call 
Of " Ariadne, Ariadne," sung 
In choral joy ; and there, with joy I hung 
Spring-blossoms round love's altar! — ay, and wore 
A wreath myself ; and felt him evermore, 
Oh, evermore beside me ! with his mighty 
Grave head bowed down in prayer to Aphrodite! 
"Why, what a sweet, sweet dream! He went with it, 
And left me here unwedded where I sit ! 

And while I dreamed of marriage, as I say, 
And blest it well, my blessed Theseus left me: 
And thus the sleep, I loved so, has bereft me. 
Speak to me, rocks, and tell my grief to-day, 
Who stole my love of Athens ? " . . . 



ARIADNE'S CROWN 191 

Then Bacchus' subtle speech her sorrow crossed: — 
" maiden, dost thou mourn for having lost 
The false Athenian heart? and dost thou still 
Take thought of Theseus, when thou mayest at will 
Have Bacchus for a husband ? Bacchus bright ! 

A god in place of mortal! Yes, and though 
The mortal youth be charming in thy sight, 

That man of Athens cannot strive below, 
In beauty and valor, with my deity ! 

Thou 'It tell me of the labyrinthine dweller, 
The fierce man-bull he slew: I pray thee, be, 

Fair Ariadne, the true deed's true teller, 
And mention thy clue 's help ! because, forsooth, 

Thine armed Athenian hero had not found 

A power to fight on that prodigious ground, 
Unless a lady in her rosy youth 
Had lingered near him : not to speak the truth 
Too definitely out till names be known — 
Like Paphia's — Love's — and Ariadne's own. 
Thou wilt not say that Athens can compare 

With Aether, nor that Minos rules like Zeus, 
Nor yet that Gnossus has such golden air 

As high Olympus. Ha ! for noble use 
We came to Naxos ! Love has well intended 
To change thy bridegroom! Happy thou, defended 
From entering in thy Theseus' earthly hall, 
That thou mayst hear the laughters rise and fall 

Instead, where Bacchus rules! Or wilt thou choose 
A still-surpassing glory ? — take it all, — 
A heavenly house, Kronion's self for kin, — 
A place where Cassiopeia sits within 
Inferior light, for all her daughter's sake, 
Since Perseus, even amid the stars, must take 



192 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Andromeda in chains aethereal ! 

But / will wreath thee, sweet, an astral crown, 

And as my queen and spouse thou shalt be known — 

Mine, the crown-lover's! " Thus, at length, he proved 

His comfort on her ; and the maid was moved ; 

And casting Theseus' memory down the brine, 

She straight received the troth of her divine 

Fair Bacchus; Love stood by to close the rite; 

The marriage-chorus struck up clear and light, 

Flowers sprouted fast about the chamber green, 

And with spring-garlands on their heads, I ween, 

The Orchomenian dancers came along 

And danced their rounds in Naxos to the song. 

A Hamadryad sang a nuptial dit 

Eight shrilly: and a Naiad sat beside 
A fountain, with her bare foot shelving it, 

And hymned of Ariadne, beauteous bride, 

Whom thus the god of grapes had deified. 
Ortygia sang out, louder than her wont, 

An ode which Phoebus gave her to be tried, 
And leapt in chorus, with her steadfast front, 
While prophet Love, the stars have called a brother, 
Burnt in his crown, and twined in one another 
His love-flower with the purple roses, given 
In type of that new crown assigned in heaven. 

— Nonnus, translated by Mrs. Browning. 



CENTAURUS AND THE SOUTHERN 
CROSS 

These are the most interesting constellations of the far 
south, but to most of the northern hemispheres they are in- 
visible. 



ALPHA CENTAURI AND THE SOUTHERN CROSS 

Far in the south, and near the southern Pole, are two 
objects which we must not fail to mention ; one is Alpha 
Centauri, our sun 's nearest known neighbor sun, and the 
other is the Southern Cross. Alpha Centauri and Beta 
Centauri are the two first-magnitude stars in the constel- 
lation Centaurus, and are sometimes called the " south- 
ern pointers, ' ' because they point to the Southern Cross. 
Alpha Centauri is the brighter, and is 4.3 light years 
away from us. When we consider that light travels 
186,400 miles a second, and recall the number of sec- 
onds in a year, it makes us feel very much alone in 
space to know that the light we see to-night started 
from our nearest neighbor nearly four and a half years 
ago. The Southern Cross is a tiny constellation of four 
stars — one first magnitude, two second magnitudes, and 
one third magnitude — that form almost a perfect cross ; 
and it is world-wide famous because of the beauty of 
these four bright stars so close together in a figure with 
so many romantic and religious associations. 



195 



CONSTELLATIONS 

constellations of the early night, 
That sparkled brighter as the twilight died, 
And made the darkness glorious ! I have seen 
Your rays grow dim upon the horizon's edge, 
And sink behind the mountains. I have seen 
The great Orion, with his jewelled belt, 
That large-limbed warrior of the skies, go down 
Into the gloom. Beside him sank a crowd 
Of shining ones. I look in vain to find 
The group of sister-stars, which mothers love 
To show their wondering babes, the gentle Seven. 
Along the desert space mine eyes in vain 
Seek the resplendent cressets which the Twins 
Uplifted in their ever-youthful hands. 
The streaming tresses of the Egyptian Queen 
Spangle the heavens no more. The Virgin trails 
No more her glittering garments through the blue. 
Gone ! all are gone ! and the forsaken Night, 
With all her winds, in all her dreary wastes, 
Sighs that they shine upon her face no more. 

Now only here and there a little star 
Looks forth alone. Ah me ! I know them not, 
Those dim successors of the numberless host 
That filled the heavenly fields, and flung to earth 
Their quivering fires. And now the middle watch 
Betwixt the eve and morn is past, and still 
The darkness gains upon the sky, and still 
It closes round my way. Shall, then, the Night 
196 



CONSTELLATIONS 197 

Grow starless in her later hours? Have these 
No train of flaming watchers, that shall mark 
Their coming and farewell ? Sons of Light ! 
Have ye then left me ere the dawn of day 
To grope along my journey sad and faint? 

Thus I complained, and from the darkness round 
A voice replied — was it indeed a voice, 
Or seeming accents of a waking dream 
Heard by the inner ear ? But thus it said : 
Traveler of the Night! thine eyes are dim 
With watching ; and the mists, that chill the vale 
Down which thy feet are passing, hide from view 
The ever-burning stars. It is thy sight 
That is so dark, and not the heavens. Thine eyes, 
Were they but clear, would see a fiery host 
Above thee; Hercules, with flashing mace, 
The Lyre with silver chords, the Swan uppoised 
On gleaming wings, the Dolphin gliding on 
With glistening scales, and that poetic steed, 
With beamy mane, whose hoof struck out from earth 
The fount of Hippocrene, and many more, 
Fair clustered splendors, with whose rays the Night 
Shall close her march in glory, ere she yield 
To the young Day, the great earth steeped in dew. 

So spake the monitor, and I perceived 
How vain were my repinings, and my thought 
Went backward to the vanished years and all 
The good and great who came and passed with them, 
And knew that ever would the years to come 
Bring with them, in their course, the good and great, 
Lights of the world, though, to my clouded sight, 
Their rays might seem but dim, or reach me not. 
— William Cullen Bryant. 



OTHER STORIES OF THE STARS 

Up to this point the myths I have told you are the ones 
made famous by the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians, and 
often repeated by the poets of Europe. They are not the 
only stories of the stars, however. The people in other parts 
of the world have told stories to suit themselves. I believe 
you will be entertained by some of those. 



GENERAL MYTHS 

The birth of myth was in the endeavor of primitive 
man to interpret the meaning of his surroundings. 
Myth, with its prolific offspring, legend and tradition, 
was the necessary travailing through which the mind of 
man had to pass in its slow progress toward certitude. 
His sole measure of things was himself; consequently, 
he thought that everything that moved, or that had 
power of movement, did so because, like him, it was 
alive. A personal life and will was attributed to sun, 
moon, clouds, river, waterfall, ocean, and tree; and the 
varying phenomena of the sky at dawn or noonday, at 
gray eve or black-clouded night, were the manifestation 
of the controlling life that dwelt in all. In a thousand 
different forms this conception was expressed. The 
thunder was the roar of a mighty beast ; the lightning a 
serpent darting at his prey, an angry eye flashing, the 
storm demon's outshot tongue; the rainbow a thirsty 
monster ; the waterspout a long-tailed dragon. This was 
not a pretty or powerful figure of speech, not imagery, 
but an explanation. The men who thus spoke of these 
phenomena meant precisely what they said. What does 
the savage know about heat, light, sound, electricity, and 
other modes of motion? How many persons who have 
enjoyed a " liberal " education can give correct an- 
swers, if asked off-hand to explain how glaciers are born 
of the sunshine, and why two sounds, traveling in op- 
posite directions at equal velocities, " interfere " and 
cause a silence? 

201 



202 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Obviously, the richest and most suggestive material 
for myths would be supplied by the striking phenomena 
of the heavens, chiefly in sunrise and sunset, in moon, 
star, star-group, and meteor, in cloud and storm; and, 
next in importance, by the strange and terrible among 
phenomena on earth, whether in the restless waters, the 
unquiet trees, the grotesquely shaped rocks, or the fear 
inspired in man by creatures more powerful than him- 
self. Through the whole range of the lower culture, 
sun, moon, and constellations are spoken of as living 
creatures, often as ancestors, heroes, and benefactors 
who have departed to the country above, to heaven, the 
heaved, uplifted land. Among the Red Races, one tribe 
thought the sun, moon, and stars were men and women 
who went into the sea every night and swam out by the 
east. The Bushmen say that the sun was once a man 
who shed light from his body, but only for a short 
distance, until some children threw him into the sky 
while he slept, and thus he shines upon the wide earth. 
The Australians say that all was darkness around them 
till one of their many ancestors (who still shine from the 
stars, shedding good and evil) threw, in pity for them, 
an emu 's egg into space, when it became the sun. Among 
the Manacicas of Brazil, the sun was their culture-hero, 
. . . and their jugglers, who claimed power to fly 
through the air, said that his luminous figure, like that 
of a man, could be seen by them, though too dazzling 
for common mortals to see. 

The sun has been stayed in his course in other places 
than Gibeon, although by mechanical means, of which 
Joshua appears to have been independent. Among the 
many exploits of Maui, abounding in Polynesian myth, 
are those of his capture of the sun. He had, like 



GENERAL MYTHS 203 

Prometheus, snatched fire from heaven for mortals ; and 
his task was to cure Ra, the sun-god, of his trick of 
setting before the day's work was done. So Maui 
plaited thick ropes of cocoa-nut fiber, and, taking them 
to the opening through which Ra climbed up from the 
nether world, he laid a slip-noose for him, placing the 
other ropes at intervals along his path. Lying in wait 
as Ra neared, he pulled the first rope, but the noose only 
caught Ra's feet. Nor could Maui stop him until he 
reached the sixth rope, when he was caught around the 
neck and pulled so tightly by Maui that he had to come 
to terms, and agree to slacken his pace for the future. 
Maui, however, took the precaution to keep the ropes on 
him, and they may still be seen hanging from the sun 
at dawn and eve. In Tahitian myth, Maui is a priest, 
who, in building a house which must be finished by day- 
light, seizes the sun by its rays and binds it to a tree 
till the house is built. In North American myth, a boy 
snared the sun, and there was no light on the earth. 
So the beasts held council who should undertake the 
perilous task of cutting the cord, when the dormouse, 
then the biggest among them, volunteered. And it suc- 
ceeded, but so scorched was it by the heat that it was 
shriveled to the smallest of creatures. 

In Indian myth we read that the moon is the sun's 
sister, an aged, pale-faced woman. In Australian myth, 
the moon's motions are explained as due to the chase of 
a jealous husband, one of the bright stars, who found his 
wife in the act of eloping with the moon. Among the 
Bushmen, the moon has incurred the sun's anger, and is 
hacked smaller and smaller by him, till, begging for 
mercy, a respite is given. But as soon as he grows 
larger the sun hacks him again. In Slavonic myth the 



204 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

sun cleaves him through for loving the morning star. 
The Indians of the far west say that, when the moon is 
full, evil spirits begin nibbling at it, and eat a portion 
every night till it is all gone ; then a great spirit makes 
a new moon, and, weary with his toil, falls asleep, when 
the bad spirits renew the attack. Another not uncom- 
mon group of myths is that which speaks of sun and 
moon as borne across the heavens on the backs of an- 
cestors, as in the Greek myth Atlas supports the world. 

But a still larger and more widespread body of myth 
has its source in the patches on the moon's face. In 
the Samoan Islands these are said to be a woman, a child, 
and a mallet. A woman was once hammering out paper 
cloth, and, seeing the moon rise, looking like a great 
bread-fruit, she asked it to come down and let her child 
eat a piece of it. But the moon was very angry at the 
idea of being eaten, and gobbled up woman, child, and 
mallet, and there they are to this day. The Selish In- 
dians of Northwestern America say that the little wolf 
was in love with the toad, and pursued her one moon- 
light night, till, as a last chance, she made a desperate 
spring onto the face of the moon, and there she is still. 
In Greenland myth, the moon was in love with his sis- 
ter, and stole in the dark to caress her. She, wishing 
to find out who her lover was, blackened her hands so 
that the marks might be left on him, which accounts for 
the spots. The Khasias of the Himalayas say that the 
moon falls in love every month with his mother-in-law, 
who, like a well-conducted matron, throws ashes in his 
face. 

Comparing these with our familiar myths, we have our 
own Man in the Moon, who is said to be the culprit 
found by Moses gathering sticks on the Sabbath, al- 



GENERAL MYTHS 205 

though his place of banishment is a popular addition to 
the Scripture narrative. According to the German 
legend, he was a scoffer who committed the same heinous 
offense on a Sunday, and was given the alternative of 
being scorched in the sun or frozen in the moon. The 
Frisians say that he stole cabbages, the load of which 
he still bears on his back. In Icelandic myth the two 
children familiar to us as Jack and Jill were kidnaped 
by the moon, and there they stand to this day, with 
bucket on pole across their shoulders, falling away one 
after the other as the moon wanes, a phase described 
in the couplet : 

Jack fell down and broke his crown, 
And Jill came tumbling after. 

Poetry has made the man in the moon its theme. 
Dante calls him Cain : Chaucer describes him 

Bearing a bush of thorns on his back, 

Which for his theft might climb so near the heaven; 

and Shakespeare refers to him in " Midsummer Night's 
Dream ' ' and the ' ' Tempest. ' ' 

" Revenons a nos moutons, " as the impatient client 
who had lost some sheep reminded his rambling ad- 
vocate. 

In the great body of nature-myth, the stars are prom- 
inent members. In their multitude; their sublime re- 
pose in upper calms above the turmoil of the elements ; 
their varying brilliancy, " one star differing from an- 
other star in glory"; their tremulous light; their scat- 
tered positions, which lend themselves to every vagary 



206 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

of the constellation-maker; their slow procession, varied 
only by sweeping comet and meteor, or falling showers 
of shooting stars ; they lead the imagination into gentler 
ways than do the vaster bodies of the most ancient 
heavens. Nor, — although we may compute their num- 
ber, weigh their volume, in a few instances reckon their 
distance, and, capturing the light that has come beating 
through space for unnumbered years, make it reveal the 
secret of their structure, — is the imagination less moved 
by the clear heavens at night, or the feeling of awe and 
reverence blunted before that " mighty sum of things 
for ever speaking." 

In barbaric myth the stars are spoken of as the chil- 
dren of the sun and the moon, but more often as men 
who have lived on the earth, translated without seeing 
death. The single stars are individual chiefs or heroes; 
the constellations are groups of men or animals. To the 
natives of Australia the brilliant Jupiter is a chief 
among the others, and the stars in Orion's belt and 
scabbard are young men dancing a corroboree, the 
Pleiades being girls playing to them. The Kasirs of 
Bengal say that the stars are the men who climbed to 
the top of a tree, and were left in the branches when 
the trunk was cut away. To the Eskimos the stars in 
Orion are seal-hunters who have missed their way home ; 
and in German folklore they are spoken of as the mowers, 
because, as Grimm says, " they stand in a row, like 
mowers in a meadow. ' ' In North American myth two of 
the bright stars are twins who have left a home where 
they were harshly treated, and leapt into the sky, 
whither their parents followed them, and ceaselessly 
chase them. In Greek myth the faintest star of the 
seven Pleiades is Merope, whose light was dimmed be- 



GENERAL MYTHS 207 

cause she alone among her sisters married a mortal. 
In German starlore, the small star just above the 
middle one in the shaft of Charles's Wain, is a wagoner, 
who, having given our Saviour a lift, was offered the 
kingdom of heaven for his reward, but who said he 
would sooner be driving from east to west to all eternity, 
and whose desire was granted. 

The Housatonic Indians say that the stars in Charles 's 
Wain are men hunting a bear, and that the chase lasts 
from spring to autumn, when the bear is wounded, 
and its dripping blood turns the leaves of the trees red. 
With this may be cited the myth that the red clouds at 
morn and eve are the blood of the slain in battle. In 
the Northern Lights, the Greenlanders see the spirits of 
the departed dancing, the brighter the flash of the 
Aurora the greater the merriment; whilst the Dacotahs 
say of the meteors that they are spirits flying through 
the air. 

Of the Milky Way, — so called because Hera, indig- 
nant at the bantling Herakles's being put to her breast, 
spilt her milk along the sky, — the Ottawas say that it 
was caused by a turtle swimming along the bottom of the 
sky, and stirring up the mud. According to the Pata- 
gonians, it is the track along which the departed tribes- 
men hunt ostriches; in African myth it is some wood- 
ashes long ago thrown up into the sky by a girl, that 
her people might be able to see their way home at night ; 
in Eastern myth, it is chaff dropped by a thief in his 
hurried flight. 

But the idea of a land beyond the sky — be it the happy 
hunting ground of the Indian, or the Paradise of Islam, 
or the New Jerusalem of the Apocalypse — would not 
fail to be imagined, and in both the Milky Way and the 



208 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Eainbow barbaric fancy sees the ladders and bridges 
whereby the departed pass from earth to heaven. So 
we find in the lower and higher culture alike the beau- 
tiful conceptions of the chemin des times, the Red Man's 
road of the dead to their home in the sun; the ancient 
Roman path of, or to, the gods; the road of the birds, 
in Lithuanian myth, because the winged spirits flit 
thither to the free and happy land. In prosaic contrast 
to all this, it is curious to find among the people living 
in England the Milky Way described as Watling Street ! 
That famous road, which ran from Tichborough through 
Canterbury and London to Chester, now gives its name 
to a narrow, bustling city street. But who the Waet- 
lings were and why their name was transferred from 
Britain to the sky, we do not know, although the fact 
is plainly enough set down in old writers, foremost 
among whom is Chaucer. In his " House of Fame " 
(II, 427) he says:— 

' Now,' quod he tho, ' cast up thyn ye ; 
See yonder, lo, the Galaxye, 
The which men clepe the Milky Wey, 
For hit is white: and somme, parfey, 
Callen hit Watlynge strete.' 

— Selected from Edward Clodd's "The Birth 
and Growth of Myth," published in Knowledge. 



DARKNESS 

I had a dream, which was not all a dream. 
The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars 
Did wander darkling in the eternal space, 
Rayless, and pathless, and the icy Earth 



DARKNESS 209 

Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air; 

Morn came and went — and came, and brought no day, 

And men forgot their passions in the dread 

Of this their desolation ; and all hearts 

Were chilled into a selfish prayer for light : 

And they did live by watchfires — and the thrones, 

The palaces of crowned kings — the huts, 

The habitations of all things which dwell, 

Were burnt for beacons; cities were consumed, 

And men were gathered round their blazing homes 

To look once more into each other's face; 

Happy were those who dwelt within the eye 

Of the volcanos and their mountain-torch : 

A fearful hope was all the World contained ; 

Forests were set on fire — but hour by hour 

They fell and faded — and the crackling trunks 

Extinguished with a crash — and all was black. 

The brows of men by the despairing light 

Wore an unearthly aspect, as by fits 

The flashes fell upon them ; some lay down 

And hid their eyes and wept ; and some did rest 

Their chins upon their clenched hands, and smiled; 

And others hurried to and fro, and fed 

Their funeral piles with fuel, and looked up 

With mad disquietude on the dull sky, 

The pall of a past World ; and then again 

With curses cast them down upon the dust, 

And gnashed their teeth and howled: the wild birds 

shrieked, 
And, terrified, did flutter on the ground, 
And flap their useless wings; the wildest brutes 
Came tame and tremulous ; and vipers crawled 
And twined themselves among the multitude, 



210 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Hissing, but stingless — they were slain for food: 

And War, which for a moment was no more, 

Did glut himself again : — a meal was bought 

With blood, and each sate sullenly apart 

Gorging himself in gloom : no Love was left ; 

All earth was but one thought — and that was Death, 

Immediate and inglorious ; and the pang 

Of famine fed upon all entrails — men 

Died, and their bones were tombless as their flesh ; 

The meager by the meager were devoured, 

Even dogs assailed their masters, all save one, 

And he was faithful to a corse, and kept 

The birds and beasts and famished men at bay, 

Till hunger clung them, or the dropping dead 

Lured their lank jaws; himself sought out no food, 

But with a piteous and perpetual moan, 

And a quick desolate cry, licking the hand 

Which answered not with a caress — he died. 

The crowd was famished by degrees; but two 

Of an enormous city did survive, 

And they were enemies : they met beside 

The dying embers of an altar-place 

Where had been heaped a mass of holy things 

For an unholy usage ; they raked up, 

And shivering scraped with their cold skeleton hands 

The feeble ashes, and their feeble breath 

Blew for a little life, and made a flame 

Which was a mockery ; then they lifted up 

Their eyes as it grew lighter, and beheld 

Each other's aspects — saw, and shrieked, and died — 

Even of their mutual hideousness they died, 

Unknowing who he was upon whose brow 

Famine had written Fiend. The World was void, 



DEATH OF WORLDS 211 

The populous and the powerful was a lump, 

Seasonless, herbless, treeless, manless, lifeless — 

A lump of death — a chaos of hard clay. 

The rivers, lakes, and ocean all stood still, 

And nothing stirred within their silent depths ; 

Ships sailorless lay rotting on the sea, 

And their masts fell down piecemeal; as they dropped 

They slept on the abyss without a surge — 

The waves were dead ; the tides were in their grave, 

The Moon, their mistress, had expired before ; 

The winds were withered in the stagnant air, 

And the clouds perished ; Darkness had no need 

Of aid from them — She was the Universe. 

— Lord Byron. 



DEATH OF WORLDS 

I am often asked, when I have shown how (so far as 
science can judge) all the orbs in space seem to tend 
towards death, whether there may not be some way in 
which this seeming tendency may be counterbalanced by 
some restorative forces. When one has to reply that 
science does not at present recognize any such forces, 
that the theories devised by Mattieu, Williams, Siemens, 
and others to that end are not only not supported by 
scientific evidence, but directly opposed to it, the idea 
seems commonly entertained that science rejects the be- 
lief in any restriction- of the energies which seem pass- 
ing continually away from suns and planets. Yet, in 
reality, such a reply means nothing of the sort. On the 
contrary, it is as certain that science has shown nothing 
against the existence of any restorative forces, as it is 



212 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

that science has as yet shown nothing in favor of such a 
process. Science simply knows nothing either one side 
or the other. And I think if men rightly understood 
the limitations of scientific research, they would see no 
reason to wonder that science should be thus unable to 
reply to a question so exceedingly difficult. Our knowl- 
edge has grown more and more, and is ever growing 
more and more, till it seems as though it would eventu- 
ally extend over all time and all space; yet it is in 
reality, and ever must be, extremely limited compared 
with what actually is. In regard to the question of the 
seeming wasting away, slowly, yet surely, of the life 
of every sun and every planet, we are much in the posi- 
tion of creatures whose whole lives, lasting but a few 
days, perhaps, would be, if placed beside a running 
river. They should learn, if they had the power of 
reasoning, that the waters of the river were passing 
continually away in one direction; and they would be 
apt to infer that unless the store of water were infinite, 
the supply must at length be exhausted. If we imagine 
them combining together information derived from 
others of their kind, up stream and down stream within 
limited distances, and also storing up, for what would 
seem to them a long period of time, the information 
gathered by generation after generation, they would 
learn that the river was broader lower down and nar- 
rower higher up, and that it had remained (on the 
whole) without appreciable change. They might even, 
we may imagine, learn how the river was fed by smaller 
streams, how it flowed into a large river, that into yet 
larger rivers, and so (possibly they might learn to guess) 
into a sea of extent, to their minds, practically infinite. 
Still their science could give no answer to the question 



DEATH OF WORLDS 213 

how the river might not really waste away, as it seemed 
to be wasting (though inappreciably in long periods of 
their time). The actual process of restoration, which, 
to us, seems so simple a matter, could not possibly sug- 
gest itself to creatures having their limited knowledge 
and experience. That the air in which they lived con- 
tained the stores from which the river, unlike them in all 
respects, was constantly nourished, would seem in- 
credible if suggested to them; but, as a matter of fact, 
the idea would be to them utterly inconceivable. It 
would not occur to their minds at all. By parity of rea- 
soning, we may well believe that the way in which the 
energies of suns and planets are continually restored, if 
(as I believe myself must be the case) they are restored 
at all, is utterly outside the range of our knowledge 
and experience. Thus understood as suggesting the 
kind of way, not the way itself, in which such restoration 
may be effected, the following strictly unscientific ideas 
may be regarded as admissible. Men were long de- 
ceived in regard to space, — they thought this world all- 
important in space, whereas now they know it to be the 
merest point compared with the solar system, this sys- 
tem the merest point compared with the distances sep- 
arating star from star, and the whole of the system 
of stars utterly lost in unfathomable depths of space. 
Men were deceived with regard to time, — they thought 
the duration of this earth represented all time; was, at 
least, central in time ; they know it now to be the merest 
second compared with the duration of the solar system, 
the duration of this a mere moment compared with the 
uncounted aeons of whose progress the star-depths tell 
us, and even these as nothing compared with the 
eternities of past and future time amid which they are 



214 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

lost. May it not well be, then, that, as men have de- 
ceived themselves with regard to both space and time, so 
also have they deceived themselves with regard to the 
very structure of the universe itself ? May it not well be 
that the solid, liquid, and vaporous forms of matter with 
which alone we are acquainted are not the only forms 
of matter which exist ? May there not be a higher order 
of universe, of which the suns and planets of the uni- 
verse we know of are but as the atoms and molecules? 
May there not be a lower, or, rather, a rarer, order of 
universe, as much finer in texture, so to speak, as that 
imagined higher order is in a sense grosser? But we 
know that there is a rarer order of universe — the ether 
of space — which permeates our universe, flowing through 
the densest solids as the breeze passes through the forest 
trees. The waste energies of stars and planets are ex- 
pended in the ether of space. May they not subserve 
within it important purposes, though we may not be 
able to conceive how? May they not continually re- 
vivify that universe, while, in turn, our universe is con- 
tinually refreshed and restored by receiving supplies of 
energies passed on to us from a higher order of universe ? 
And thus, from higher and higher orders of universe, 
absolutely without end on one side, to lower and lower 
orders as absolutely without end on the other side, there 
may be constant interchange of energy, instead of the 
dying out of any one among these various orders of 
material universe. 

All this, as I have said, is outside science. For science 
deals with what we know of, what we can observe, 
analyze, and investigate, while these interchanges of life 
and energy we can never analyze or test. But thus it is 
in whatever direction we investigate the universe. On 



DEATH OF WORLDS 215 

all sides we reach the unknown, the unknowable. We 
approach in every case the threshold of infinity — infinite 
space and infinite time, infinite power and infinite vari- 
ety. In dealing with infinity we are dealing with what 
is for us absolutely inconceivable, though its existence 
is absolutely certain. 

— Richard A. Proctor. 



AN ODE 

The spacious firmament on high, 

With all the blue ethereal sky, 

And spangled Heavens, a shining frame, 

Their great Original proclaim. 

Th' un weary 'd Sun from day to day 

Does his Creator's power display; 

And publishes, to every land, 

The work of an immortal hand. 

Soon as the evening shades prevail, 

The Moon takes up the wondrous tale ; 

And nightly, to the listening Earth, 

Repeats the story of her birth : 

Whilst all the stars that round her burn, 

And all the planets, in their turn, 

Confirm the tidings as they roll, 

And spread the truth from pole to pole. 

What though, in solemn silence, all 
Move round the dark terrestrial ball; 
What though no real voice, nor sound 
Amidst their radiant orbs be found: 



216 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

In reason's ear they all rejoice, 
And utter forth a glorious voice; 
Forever singing as they shine : 
" The hand that made us is divine.' ' 

— Joseph Addison. 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 

The " perfect Science," as astronomy is sometimes 
called, is the oldest of the sciences, and its course has 
been as turbulent as long. In no other science have 
what appeared to be facts so stubbornly contested every 
inch of ground with real facts. The earth looked flat. 
The sun seemed to rise and set. All the hosts of stars 
sank into the sea at evening, and swam out in the east 
in the morning. All evidence to disprove these illusions 
was held in abhorrence until almost our own age was 
reached. 

The primitive man believed that all creation had life, 
and a will to do good and evil. It was out of this belief 
that the myths grew up. Then the constellations were 
marked off, and named after the heroes of the stories, 
and were incorporated into the literature of the times. 
Homer, in the Iliad, probably one thousand years be- 
fore Christ, tells us about a wonderful shield that one of 
the gods made for the hero Achilles, on which he placed 
some of the constellations, which may have been about 
all known to him at that time : 

"First fashioned he a shield great and strong, adorning it 
all over, and set thereto a shining rim, triple, bright-glancing, 
and therefrom a silver baldrick. Five were the- folds of the 
shield itself; and therein fashioned he much cunning work 
from his wise heart. 

" There wrought he the earth, and the heavens, and the sea, 

217 



218 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

and the unwearying sun, and the moon waxing to the full, and 
the signs every one wherewith the heavens are crowned, 
Pleiads and Hyads and Orion's might, and the Bear that men 
call also the Wain, her that turneth in her place and watcheth 
Orion, and alone hath no part in the baths of Ocean." 



About four centuries before Christ, Eudoxus brought 
from Egypt to Athens an improved celestial sphere, and 
a century and a half later the poet Aratus, who was 
then the court poet at Macedonia, sang of the stories of 
the stars and of their positions in the heavens. A few 
years after Christ, between 125 and 150 a.d., Ptolemy 
made the first accurate star charts, and propounded his 
philosophy that our little world was the center of the 
universe, and that all creation was for our edification. 
This explanation of the universe had been the regular 
belief of men long before Ptolemy, and continued to be 
so long after him. As late as the seventeenth century 
it was adopted by Milton (there is reason to think he 
did not really believe in it) as the basis for " Paradise 
Lost, ' ' although a century before his time Copernicus had 
conceived the simple truth that the world turned on its 
axis. At the time of Milton the wonderful Galileo had 
made his name immortal by the invention of the tele- 
scope, an instrument which has made our greatly ad- 
vanced astronomy of to-day possible. 

At last truth came into her own, and the past two 
centuries have seen stupendous strides in astronomy. 
Observatories have been established all over the world. 
Brilliant and skilled men work in them; and by their 
labors benefit beyond all estimate has been rendered to 
the men of the sea and of the land. The great saving 
of life at sea can never be known. And it is highly 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 219 

probable that the advanced astronomy of to-day saves 
more money in the transactions of business than it costs 
to run all our observatories. 

Telescopes were made larger and larger, with bet- 
ter and better lenses, until they reached almost the 
acme of perfection. It began to look as if the limits of 
progress had been nearly reached : there was no way to 
learn those secrets of the stars that the telescope failed 
to penetrate. But human ingenuity, not to be balked, 
goes on finding new instruments to supplement the tele- 
scope or the eye. The photographer has given us a sort 
of new eye. A photographic apparatus attached to a 
telescope records many things that escape the eye, be- 
cause the plate can be exposed for hours and hours, 
while the eye becomes tired and dull in a very short time. 
To mention but a single example, the vast nebula sur- 
rounding the Pleiades has been shown to us. At Harvard 
Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., Professor Pickering is 
having the whole sky photographed on long time ex- 
posures. Very careful records are kept of all the plates, 
and they are examined with minute care in the search for 
new stars. These pictures of the sky will make by far 
the most perfect star charts that the world has ever 
known, and will be a wonderful gift to pass on to the 
generations who will follow us. 

Another discovery which we will mention will be a 
little harder to understand, but more interesting. And 
while you cannot understand the principles perfectly 
until you have studied physics and chemistry, you can 
still enjoy the revelations. You, perhaps, know that our 
light comes to us in waves like the water waves on the 
seashore, or the little waves that come rolling in when 
you cast a stone into a brook. The length of the tiny 



220 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

light waves is so extremely small that we can scarcely 
conceive of them. Yet an instrument has been made 
that can measure them. It is called the spectroscope, 
and the fundamental part of it is a prism. It may be 
that you have looked through prisms. " I shall never 
forget the pleasure I had with them when I was a small 
child. My grandmother had a swinging lamp hung 
from the parlor ceiling; its shade was decorated with 
dozens of prisms dangling from the edges. If one slipped 
from its chain, I secured it with glee ; and when I looked 
at things through it, every object seemed to be laced 
about with a rainbow." The picture of colored bands 
that the light makes when passing through the spectro- 
scope is called the spectrum of the object from which the 
light comes. This picture is like our rainbow, which is 
a genuine spectrum. Now, different solids and gases, 
at white heat, have different spectra; so, by examining 
the spectrum of the light from a certain star, the scien- 
tist can tell of what material the star is composed. 

Nor is this all that the spectroscope tells us. While 
these many-banded pictures were being examined, it was 
detected that the spectra of some stars seemed com- 
pressed, as if the light waves were beating down upon 
them; of other stars the spectra seemed to be dispersed, 
as if something was retarding the light waves. Analysis 
of this condition revealed that the spectrum seemed to 
be compressed when the star was moving towards us, 
and that the spectrum seemed to be dispersed when the 
star was moving away from us. So at last science had, 
in a sense, compassed the vast inconceivable distances 
of space, and was able almost directly to measure the 
motion of the stars as they approach us and leave us. 
By comparing the spectrum of a star with the spectrum 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 221 

of an object at rest, and making some mathematical 
calculations, it can be determined with what speed the 
star which gives the compressed spectrum is approach- 
ing us, and with what speed the star which gives the 
dispersed spectrum is leaving us. 

In the last four or five years of the nineteenth cen- 
tury, it was found that the Pole Star is approaching us 
at a great speed that changes every four days. These 
changes show that Polaris is whirling around some dark 
object — dark, else we could see it — as our moon goes 
around the earth, but at a tremendous speed, making 
its circuit in four days. But all the while this system is 
coming on through space at a still greater speed. When 
Polaris is on her backward voyage around this dark 
companion, her motion towards us is the difference be- 
tween her motion around it, and the motion of the system 
towards us, just as if you were running backwards 
through a swiftly moving train. But when Polaris is 
coming on around, her speed towards us is the sum of 
the motion of the system towards us and her motion 
around her companion, just as if you were running for- 
ward in a swiftly moving train. 

The distance of a star from the earth makes no differ- 
ence in its treatment with a spectroscope. The light 
from Polaris that reaches us to-night started on its jour- 
ney over fifty years ago, and has been traveling 186,400 
miles a second during all these years. Yet it comes 
with all its inherent qualities, and tells us the secrets 
of its creator. 



ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVATORIES 

AN ADDRESS DELIVERED IN 1856 

The object of an observatory, erected and supplied 
with instruments of admirable construction, and at pro- 
portionate expense, is, as I have already intimated, to 
provide for an accurate and systematic survey of the 
heavenly bodies, with a view to a more correct and 
extensive acquaintance with those already known, and, 
as instrumental power and skill in using it increase, to 
the discovery of bodies hitherto invisible, and in both 
classes to the determination of their distances, their re- 
lations to each other, and the laws which govern their 
movements. 

Why should we wish to obtain this knowledge ? What 
inducement is there to expend large sums of money in 
the erection of observatories, and in furnishing them 
with costly instruments, and in the support of the men 
of science employed in making, discussing, and record- 
ing, for successive generations, these minute observa- 
tions of the heavenly bodies? 

What is the use of an observatory, and what benefit 
may be expected from the operations of such an estab- 
lishment in a community like ours? 

In the first place, then, we derive from the observa- 
tions of the heavenly bodies which are made at an ob- 
servatory, our only adequate measures of time, and our 
only means of comparing the time of one place with the 
time of another. Our artificial time-keepers — clocks, 

222 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 223 

watches, and chronometers — however ingeniously con- 
trived and admirably fabricated, are but a transcript, so 
to say, of the celestial motions, and would be of no value 
without the means of regulating them by observation. 
It is impossible for them, under any circumstances, to 
escape the imperfection of all machinery the work of 
human hands; and the moment we remove with our 
time-keeper east or west, it fails us. It will keep home 
time alone, like the fond traveler who leaves his heart 
behind him. The artificial instrument is of incalculable 
utility, but must itself be regulated by the eternal clock- 
work of the skies. 

This single consideration is sufficient to show how com- 
pletely the daily business of life is affected and con- 
trolled by the heavenly bodies. It is they — and not our 
main-springs, our expansion balances, and our com- 
pensating pendulums — which give us our time. To re- 
verse the line of Pope : 

"'Tis with our watches as our judgments; — none 
Go just alike, but each believes his own." 

But for all the kindreds and tribes and tongues of 
men — each upon their own meridian — from the Arctic 
pole to the equator, from the equator to the Antarctic 
pole, the eternal sun strikes twelve at noon, and the 
glorious constellations, far up in the everlasting belfries 
of the skies, chime twelve at midnight; — twelve for the 
pale student over his flickering lamp; twelve amid the 
flaming glories of Orion's belt, if he crosses the meridian 
at that fated hour; twelve by the weary couch of lan- 
guishing humanity; twelve in the star-paved courts of 
the Empyrean ; twelve for the heaving tides of the 
ocean; twelve for the weary arm of labor; twelve for 



224 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

the toiling brain; twelve for the watching, waking, 
broken heart; twelve for the meteor which blazes for a 
moment and expires ; twelve for the comet whose period 
is measured by the centuries; twelve for every sub- 
stantial, for every imaginary thing, which exists in the 
sense, the intellect, or the fancy, and which the speech 
or thought of man, at the given meridian, refers to the 
lapse of time. 

Not only do we resort to the observation of the heav- 
enly bodies for the means of regulating and rectifying 
our clocks, but the great divisions of day and month 
and year are derived from the same source. By the con- 
stitution of our nature, the elements of our existence are 
closely connected with celestial times. Partly by his 
physical organization, partly by the experience of the 
race from the dawn of creation, man, as he is, and the 
times and seasons of the heavenly bodies, are part and 
parcel of one system. The first great division of time, 
the day-night, for which we have no precise synonym in 
our language, with its primal alteration of waking and 
sleeping, of labor and rest, is a vital condition of the 
existence of such a creature as man. The revolution of 
the year, with its various incidents of summer and win- 
ter, and seed-time and harvest, is not less involved in 
our social, material, and moral progress. It is true 
that, at the poles and on the equator, the effects of 
these revolutions are variously modified or wholly dis- 
appear; but as the necessary consequence, human life is 
extinguished at the poles, and on the equator attains 
only a languid or feverish development. Those lati- 
tudes only in which the great motions and cardinal posi- 
tions of the earth exert a mean influence, exhibit man 
in the harmonious expansion of his powers. The lunar 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 225 

period, which, lies at the foundation of the month, is 
less vitally connected with human existence and de- 
velopment ; but is proved by the experience of every age 
and race to be eminently conducive to the progress of 
civilization and culture. 

But indispensable as are these heavenly measures of 
time to our life and progress, and obvious as are the 
phenomena on which they rest, yet owing to the cir- 
cumstances that, in the economy of nature, the day, the 
month, and the year are not exactly commensurable, 
some of the most difficult questions in practical astron- 
omy are those by which an accurate division of time, ap- 
plicable to the various uses of life, is derived from the 
observation of the heavenly bodies. I have no doubt 
that, to the Supreme Intelligence which created and 
rules the universe, there is a harmony hidden to us in the 
numerical relation to each other of days, months, and 
years ; but in our ignorance of that harmony, their prac- 
tical adjustment to each other is a work of difficulty. 
The great embarrassment which attended the reforma- 
tion of the calendar, after the error of the Julian period 
had, in the lapse of centuries, reached ten (or rather 
twelve) days, sufficiently illustrates this remark. It is 
most true that scientific difficulties did not form the chief 
obstacle. Having been proposed under the auspices of 
the Roman pontiff, the Protestant world, for a century 
and more, rejected the new style. It was in various 
places the subject of controversy, collision, and blood- 
shed. It was not adopted in England till nearly two 
centuries after its introduction at Rome; and in the 
country of Struve and the Pulkova equatorial, they per- 
sist at the present day in adding eleven minutes and 
twelve seconds to the length of the tropical year. 



226 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

The second great practical use of an Astronomical Ob- 
servatory is connected with the science of geography. 
The first page of the history of our Continent declares 
this truth. Profound meditation on the sphericity of 
the earth was one of the main reasons which led Co- 
lumbus to undertake his momentous voyage; and his 
thorough acquaintance with the astronomical science of 
that day was, in his own judgment, what enabled him to 
overcome the almost innumerable obstacles which at- 
tended its prosecution. In return, I find that Coper- 
nicus, in the very commencement of his immortal work, 
De Bevolutionibus Orbium Coelestium, fol. 2, appeals to 
the discovery of America as completing the demonstra- 
tion of the sphericity of the earth. Much of our knowl- 
edge of the figure, size, density, and position of the 
earth, as a member of the solar system, is derived from 
this science ; and it furnishes us the means of perform- 
ing the most important operations of practical geog- 
raphy. Latitude and longitude, which lie at the basis 
of all descriptive geography, are determined by observa- 
tion. No map deserves the name on which the position 
of important points has not been astronomically deter- 
mined. Some even of our most important political and 
administrative arrangements depend upon the coopera- 
tion of this science. Among these I may mention the 
land system of the United States, and the determination ' 
of the boundaries of the country. I believe that till it 
was done by the Federal Government, a uniform system 
of mathematical survey had never in any country been 
applied to an extensive territory. Large grants and 
sales of public land took place before the Revolution, 
and in the interval between the peace and the adoption 
of the Constitution; but the limits of these grants and 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 227 

sales were ascertained by sensible objects, by trees, 
streams, rocks, hills, and by reference to adjacent por- 
tions of territory previously surveyed. The uncertainty 
of boundaries thus denned was a never-failing source of 
litigation. Large tracts of land in the Western coun- 
try, granted by Virginia under this old system of special 
and local survey, were covered with conflicting claims; 
and the controversies to which they gave rise formed no 
small part of the business of the Federal Court after its 
organization. But the adoption of the present land- 
system brought order out of chaos. The entire public 
domain is now scientifically surveyed before it is of- 
fered for sale ; it is laid off into ranges, townships, sec- 
tions, and smaller divisions, with unerring accuracy, 
resting on the foundation of base and meridian lines; 
and I have been informed that under this system, scarce 
a case of contested location and boundary has ever pre- 
sented itself in court. The General Land Office contains 
maps and plans, in which every quarter-section of the 
public land is laid down with mathematical precision. 
The superficies of half a continent is thus transferred 
in miniature to the bureaus of Washington; while the 
local Land Offices contain transcripts of these plans, 
copies of which are furnished to the individual pur- 
chaser. When we consider the tide of population an- 
nually flowing into the public domain, and the immense 
importance of its efficient and economical administration, 
the utility of this application of astronomy will be duly 
estimated. 

I will here venture to repeat an anecdote, which I 
heard lately from a son of the late Hon. Timothy Pick- 
ering. Mr. Octavius Pickering, on behalf of his father, 
had applied to Mr. David Putnam of Marietta to act as 



228 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

his legal adviser, with respect to certain land claims in 
the Virginia Military district, in the State of Ohio. Mr. 
Putnam declined the agency. He had had much to do 
with business of that kind, and found it beset with end- 
less litigation. " I have never," he added, " succeeded 
but in a single case, and that was a location and survey 
made by General Washington before the Revolution ; and 
I am not acquainted with any surveys, except those 
made by him, but what have been litigated. ' ' 

At this moment a most important survey of the coast 
of the United States is in progress, an operation^ of the 
utmost consequence, in reference to the commerce, nav- 
igation, and hydrography of the country. The entire 
work, I need scarce say, is one of practical astronomy. 

Astronomical observation furnishes by far the best 
means of denning the boundaries of States, especially 
when the lines are of great length and run through un- 
settled countries. Natural indications, like rivers and 
mountains, however distinct in appearance, are in prac- 
tice subject to unavoidable error. By the treaty of 1783, 
a boundary was established between the United States 
and Great Britain, depending chiefly on the course of 
rivers and highlands dividing the waters which flow into 
the Atlantic Ocean from those which flow into the St. 
Lawrence. It took twenty years to find out which river 
was the true St. Croix, that being the starting point. 
England then having made the extraordinary discov- 
ery that the Bay of Fundy is not a part of the At- 
lantic Ocean, forty years more were passed in the unsuc- 
cessful attempt to re-create the highlands which this 
strange theory had annihilated; and just as the two 
countries were on the verge of a war, the controversy was 
settled by compromise. Had the boundary been ac- 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 229 

curately described by lines of latitude and longitude, no 
dispute could have arisen. No dispute arose as to the 
boundary between the United States and Spain, and 
her successor, Mexico, where it runs through untrodden 
deserts and over pathless mountains along the forty- 
second degree of latitude. The identity of rivers may 
be disputed, as in the case of the St. Croix; the course 
of mountain chains is too broad for a dividing line ; the 
division of streams, as experience has shown, is uncer- 
tain; but a degree of latitude is written on the heav- 
enly sphere, and nothing but an observation is required 
to read the record. 

But scientific elements, like sharp instruments, must 
be handled with scientific accuracy. A part of our 
boundary between the British Provinces ran upon the 
forty-fifth degree of latitude ; and about forty years ago 
an expensive fortress was commenced by the government 
of the United States, at Rouse's Point, on Lake 
Champlain, on a spot intended to be just within our 
limits. When a line came to be more carefully sur- 
veyed, the fortress turned out to be on the wrong side 
of the line ; we had been building an expensive fortifica- 
tion for our neighbor. But in the general compromises 
of the Treaty of Yfashington by the Webster and Ash- 
burton Treaty in 1842, the fortification was left within 
our limits. 

Errors still more serious had nearly resulted, a few 
years since, in a war with Mexico. By the treaty of 
Guadalupe Hidalgo, in 1848, the boundary line between 
the United States and that country was in part de- 
scribed by reference to the town of El Paso, as laid 
down on a specified map of the United States, of which 
a copy was appended to the treaty. This boundary was 



230 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

to be surveyed and run by a joint commission of men of 
science. It soon appeared that errors of two or three 
degrees existed in the projection of the map. Its lines 
of latitude and longitude did not conform to the topog- 
raphy of the region ; so that it became impossible to ex- 
ecute the text of the treaty. The famous Mesilla Val- 
ley was a part of the debatable ground ; and the sum of 
ten million dollars, paid to the Mexican Government for 
that and for an additional strip of territory on the 
southwest, was the smart-money which expiated the in- 
accuracy of the map — the necessary result, perhaps, of 
the want of good materials for its construction. . . . 

It would be easy to multiply illustrations in proof of 
the great practical importance of accurate scientific 
designations, drawn from astronomical observations, in 
various relations connected with boundaries, surveys, 
and other geographical purposes; but I must hasten on. 

A third important department, in which the services 
rendered by astronomy are equally conspicuous. I refer 
to commerce and navigation. It is mainly owing to the 
results of astronomical observation, that modern com- 
merce has attained such a vast expansion, compared with 
that of the ancient world. I have already reminded 
you that accurate ideas in this respect contributed 
materially to the conception in the mind of Columbus of 
his immortal enterprise, and to the practical success with 
which it was conducted. It was mainly his skill in the 
use of astronomical instruments — imperfect as they 
were — which enabled him, in spite of the bewildering 
variations of the compass, to find his way across the 
ocean. 

With the progress of the true system of the universe 
toward general adoption, the problem of finding the 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 231 

longitude at sea presented itself. This was the avowed 
object of the foundation of the observatory at Green- 
wich; and no one subject has received more of the at- 
tention of astronomers, than those investigations of the 
lunar theory on which the requisite tables of the nav- 
igator are founded. The pathways of the ocean are 
marked out in the sky above. The eternal lights of the 
heavens are the only Pharos whose beams never fail, 
which no tempest can shake from its foundation. 
Within my recollection, it was deemed a necessary qual- 
ification for the master and the mate of a merchant-ship, 
and even for a prime hand, to be able to " work a 
lunar," as it was called. The improvements in the 
chronometer have in practice, to a great extent, super- 
seded this laborious operation; but observation remains, 
and unquestionably will forever remain, the only de- 
pendence for ascertaining the ship's time and deducing 
the longitude from the comparison of that time with the 
chronometer. 

It may, perhaps, be thought that astronomical science 
is brought already to such a state of perfection that 
nothing more is to be desired, or, at least, that nothing 
more is attainable, in reference to such practicable ap- 
plications as I have described. This, however, is an 
idea which generous minds will reject, in this, as in every 
other department of human knowledge. In astronomy, 
as in everything else, the discoveries already made, 
theoretical or practical, instead of exhausting the science, 
or putting a limit to its advancement, do but furnish 
the means and instruments of further progress. I have 
no doubt we live on the verge of discoveries and in- 
ventions, in every department, as brilliant as any that 
have ever been made; that there are new truths, new 



232 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

facts, ready to start into recognition on every side ; and 
it seems to me there never was an age, since the dawn of 
time, when men ought to be less disposed to rest satis- 
fied with the progress already made, than the age in 
which we live ; for there never was an age more distin- 
guished for ingenious research, for novel result, and 
bold generalization. 

That no further improvement is desirable in the 
means and methods of ascertaining the ship's place at 
sea, no one, I think, will from experience be disposed 
to assert. The last time I crossed the Atlantic, I 
walked the quarterdeck with the officer in charge of the 
noble vessel, on one occasion, when we were driving 
along before a leading breeze and under a head of steam, 
beneath a starless sky at midnight, at the rate certainly 
of ten or eleven miles an hour. There is something 
sublime, but approaching the terrible, in such a scene ; — 
the rayless gloom, the midnight chill, — the awful swell 
of the deep, — the dismal moan of the wind through the 
rigging, the all but volcanic fires within the hold of the 
ship. I scarce know an occasion in ordinary life in 
which a reflecting mind feels more keenly its hopeless 
dependence on irrational forces beyond its own control. 
I asked my companion how nearly he could determine his 
ship's place at sea under favorable circumstances. 
" Theoretically," he answered, " I think, within a 
mile; — practically and usually within three or four." 
My next question was, ' ' How near do you think we may 
be to Cape Race? " (that dangerous headland which 
pushes its ironbound unlighted bastions from the shore 
of Newfoundland far into the Atlantic, — first landfall 
to the homeward-bound American vessel). " We 
must," said he, " by our last observations and reckon- 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 233 

ing, be within three or four miles of Cape Race." A 
comparison of the two remarks, under the circum- 
stances in which we were placed at the moment, brought 
my mind to the conclusion, that it is greatly to be 
wished that the means should be discovered of finding 
the ship's place more accurately, or that navigators 
would give Cape Race a little wider berth. But I do 
not remember that one of the steam packets between 
England and America was ever lost on that formidable 
point. 

It appears to me by no means unlikely that, with 
the improvement of instrumental power, and of the 
means of ascertaining the ship's time with exactness, as 
great an advance beyond the present state of art and 
science in finding a ship's place at sea may take place, 
as was effected by the invention of the reflecting 
quadrant, the calculation of lunar tables, and the im- 
proved construction of chronometers. . . . 

Whatever advances may be made in astronomical sci- 
ence, theoretical or applied, I am strongly inclined to 
think that they will be made in connection with an in- 
creased command of instrumental power. The natural 
order in which the human mind proceeds in the acquisi- 
tion of astronomical knowledge is minute and. accurate 
observation of the phenomena of the heavens, the skilful 
discussion and analysis of these observations, and sound 
philosophy in generalizing the results. 

In pursuing this course, however, a difficulty pre- 
sents itself, which for ages proved insuperable — and 
which, to the same extent, has existed in no other science, 
viz. : that all the leading phenomena are in their ap- 
pearance delusive. It is, indeed, true that in all sciences 
superficial observation can only lead, except by chance, 



234 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

to superficial knowledge; but I know of no branch in 
which, to the same degree as in astronomy, the great 
leading phenomena are the reverse of true; while they 
yet appeal so strongly to the senses, that men who could 
foretell eclipses, and who discovered the procession of 
the equinoxes, still believed that the earth was at rest 
in the center of the universe, and that all the host of 
heaven performed a daily revolution about it as a center. 

It usually happens in scientific progress, that, when a 
great fact is at length discovered, it approves itself at 
once to all competent judges. It furnishes a solution 
to so many problems, and harmonizes with so many other 
facts, — that all the other data, as it were, crystallize at 
once about it. In modern times, we have often witnessed 
such an impatience, so to say, of great truths, to be dis- 
covered, that it has frequently happened that they have 
been found out simultaneously by more than one in- 
dividual; and a disputed question of priority is an 
event of very common occurrence. Not so with the true 
theory of the heavens. So complete is the deception 
practised on the senses, that it failed more than once to 
yield to the suggestion of the truth; and it was only 
when the visual organs were armed with an almost 
preternatural instrumental power, that the great fact 
found admission to the human mind. 

It is supposed that in the very dawn of the science, 
Pythagoras or his disciples explained the apparent mo- 
tion of the heavenly bodies about the earth by the diurnal 
revolution of the earth on its axis. But this theory, 
though bearing so deeply impressed upon it the great seal 
of truth, simplicity, was in such glaring contrast with 
the evidence of the senses that it failed of acceptance in 
antiquity or the Middle Ages. It found no favor with 




Interior of the 90-Foot Dome of Yerkes Observatory 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 235 

minds like those of Aristotle, Archimedes, Hipparchus, 
Ptolemy, or any of the acute and learned Arabians or 
mediaeval astronomers. All their ingenuity and all 
their mathematical skill were exhausted in the develop- 
ment of a wonderfully complicated and ingenious, but 
erroneous history. The great master truth, rejected for 
its simplicity, lay disregarded at their feet. 

At the second dawn of science, the great fact again 
beamed into the mind of Copernicus. Now, at least, in 
that glorious age which witnessed the invention of print- 
ing, the great mechanical engine of intellectual progress, 
and the discovery of America, we may expect that this 
long-hidden revelation, a second time proclaimed, will 
command the assent of mankind. But the sensible 
phenomena were still too strong for the theory; the 
glorious delusion of the rising and the setting sun could 
not be overcome. Tycho Brahe furnished his Ob- 
servatory with instruments superior in number and 
quality to all that had been collected before; but the 
great instrument of discovery which, by augmenting the 
optic power of the eye, enables it to penetrate beyond 
the apparent phenomena, and to discern the true con- 
stitution of the heavenly bodies, was wanting at Uranien- 
burg. The observations of Tycho as discussed by Kep- 
ler, conducted that most fervid, powerful, and sagacious 
mind to the discovery of some of the most important 
laws of the celestial motions ; but it was not till Galileo, 
at Florence, had pointed his telescope to the sky, that 
the Copernican system could be said to be firmly estab- 
lished in the scientific world. 

On this great name, my friends, assembled as we are to 
dedicate a temple to instrumental astronomy, we may 
well pause for a moment. 



236 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

There is much in every way, in the city of Florence, 
to excite the curiosity, to kindle the imagination, and to 
gratify the taste. Sheltered on the north by the vine- 
clad hills of Fiesole, whose cyclopean walls carry back 
the antiquary to ages before the Roman, before the 
Etruscan power, the flowery city (Fiorenza) covers the 
sunny banks of the Arno with its stately palaces. Dark 
and frowning piles of mediaeval structure; a majestic 
dome, the prototype of St. Peter's; basilicas which en- 
shrine the ashes of some of the mightiest of the dead ; the 
stone where Dante stood to gaze on the Campanile ; the 
house of Michael Angelo, still occupied by a descendant 
of his lineage and name, his hammer, his chisel, his di- 
viders, his manuscript poems, all as if he had left them 
but yesterday; airy bridges, which seem not so much to 
rest on the earth as to hover over the waters they span ; 
the loveliest creations of ancient art, rescued from the 
grave of ages again to enchant the world ; the breathing 
marbles of Michael Angelo, the glowing canvases of 
Raphael and Titian, museums filled with medals and 
coins of every age, from Cyrus the Younger, and gems 
and amulets and vases from the sepulchers of Egyptian 
Pharaohs coeval with Joseph, and Etruscan Lucumons 
that swayed Italy before the Romans, — libraries stored 
with the choicest texts of ancient literature, — gardens 
of rose, and orange, and pomegranate, and myrtle, — the 
very air you breathe languid with music and perfume ; — 
such is Florence. But among all its fascinations, ad- 
dressed to the sense, the memory, and the heart, there 
was none to which I more frequently gave a meditative 
hour during a year's residence, than to the spot where 
Galileo Galilei sleeps beneath the marble floor of Santa 
Croce; no building on which I gazed with greater rev- 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 237 

erence, than I did upon the modest mansion at Arcetri, 
villa at once and prison, in which that venerable sage, 
by command of the Inquisition, passed the sad closing 
years of his life. The beloved daughter on whom he had 
depended to smooth his passage to the grave, laid there 
before him; the eyes with which he had discovered 
worlds before unknown, quenched in blindness. That 
was the house, " where," says Milton (another of those 
of whom the world was not worthy), " I found and vis- 
ited the famous Galileo, grown old — a prisoner to the 
Inquisition, for thinking on astronomy otherwise than 
as the Dominican and Franciscan licensers thought." 
Great heavens ! what a tribunal, what a culprit, what a 
crime! Let us thank God, my friends, that we live in 
the nineteenth century. Of all the wonders of the an- 
cient and modern art, statues and paintings, and jewels 
and manuscripts, — the admiration and the delight of 
ages, — there was nothing which I beheld with more af- 
fectionate awe than that poor, rough tube, a few feet in 
length, — the work of his own hands, — that very " optic 
glass," through which the 

" Tuscan Artist viewed the moon, 
At evening, from the top of Fiesole 
Or in Valdarno, to descry new lands, 
Rivers, or mountains, in her spotty globe " ; 

that poor little spy- glass (for it is scarcely more) 
through which the human eye first distinctly beheld the 
surface of the moon — first discovered the phases of 
Venus, the satellites of Jupiter, and the seeming handles 
of Saturn — first penetrated the dusky depths of the 
heavens — first pierced the clouds of visual error, which, 



238 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

from the creation of the world, involved the system of 
the Universe. 

There are occasions in life in which a great mind lives 
years of rapt enjoyment in a moment. I can fancy the 
emotions of Galileo, when, first raising the newly-con- 
structed telescope to the heavens, he saw fulfilled the 
grand prophecy of Copernicus, and beheld the planet 
Venus, crescent like the moon. It was such another 
moment as that when the immortal printers of Mentz 
and Strasburg received the first copy of the Bible into 
their hands, the work of their divine art ; like that when 
Columbus, through the gray dawn of the 12th of Oc- 
tober, 1492 (Copernicus, at the age of eighteen, was then 
a student at Cracow), beheld the shores of San Sal- 
vador; like that when the law of gravitation first re- 
vealed itself to the intellect of Newton; like that when 
Franklin saw by the stiffening fibers of the hempen cord 
of his kite, that he held the lightning in his grasp ; like 
that when Leverrier received back from Berlin the 
tidings that the predicted planet was found. 

Yes, noble Galileo, thou art right, " It does move." 
Bigots may make thee recant it ; but it moves, neverthe- 
less. Yes, the earth moves, and the planets move, and 
the mighty waters move, and the great sweeping tides of 
air move, and the empires of men move, and the world of 
thought moves, ever onward and upward to higher 
facts and bolder theories. The Inquisition may seal thy 
lips, but they can no more stop the progress of the great 
truth propounded by Copernicus, and demonstrated by 
thee, than they can stop the revolving earth. 

Close now, venerable sage, that sightless, tearful eye; 
it has seen what man never saw before — it has seen 
enough. Hang up that poor little spy-glass — it has 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 239 

done its work. Not Herschel nor Rosse have, com- 
paratively, done more. Franciscans and Dominicans 
deride thy discoveries now ; bnt the time will come when, 
from two hundred observatories in Europe and America, 
the glorious artillery of science shall nightly assault the 
skies, but they shall gain no conquest in those glittering 
fields before which thine shall be forgotten. Rest in 
peace, great Columbus of the heavens — like him scorned ; 
persecuted, broken-hearted! — in other ages, in distant 
hemispheres, when the votaries of science, with solemn 
acts of consecration, shall dedicate their stately edifices 
to the cause of knowledge and truth, thy name shall be 
mentioned with honor. 

— Edward Everett (Adapted). 



" MARCHING ON A STAR " 

I happened some time ago to lecture to a number of 
army officers on " The Use of the Stars in Night- 
Marches." They appeared to find my notes of interest 
and service, and this suggested to me that perhaps a 
small pocketbook devoted to a practical consideration of 
the matter might be found useful by soldiers; possibly, 
too, by other landsmen who are interested in the stars, 
or may have occasion to walk or ride by night through 
unfamiliar country. Furthermore, the fact that the 
results arrived at are obtained rather by observation and 
practice than by mathematical calculation should render 
the work well adapted to the needs and tastes of the 
Boy Scouts. 

The first question, naturally, is: " What can a lands- 
man get by the use of the stars? " To the seaman, of 
course, they may be of great assistance ; and a good ob- 



240 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

server under favorable conditions is able by their aid 
to convert his general idea of the position of his ship 
into one that is not more than a mile or so incorrect. 
But it by no means follows that the traveler by night 
on land will be able to, or indeed wants to, make the 
same use of the stars. For consider; the navigator has 
at his command, to assist him, chronometer, charts, sex- 
tant, nautical almanacs, and figure tables: the night- 
marcher may have all these, and an artificial horizon 
as well, but except on a scientific expedition he is very 
unlikely to. Again, the former takes and works out his 
observations without any waste of time to the ship and 
with light and comfort; the latter may have to stop to 
do so and thus lose time, and the conditions under which 
he is likely to be working tend to introduce errors. 

Position, then, to the landsman, is (even if desirable) 
quite unfeasible ; what the stars give him is direction. 
And first let us be quite clear what we mean when we 
speak of the stars giving " direction." Not of course 
that they act as a kind of wayside finger-post pointing 
" X — 12 miles," and so forth; this is more than can 
reasonably be expected; and if a wanderer is so com- 
pletely lost that he has no notion whether his home lies 
north or south or east or west, all the star-lore in the 
world will do no more for him than enable him to choose 
some direction and hold to it. But this it will do. It 
will, in the simplest and best case, give us the N. and S. 
points, and we must make what use we can of that 
knowledge. Perhaps it has been possible to work out 
the bearing of destination from starting-point to be (say) 
N. 65 W. We lay off this angle on a piece of paper or 
cardboard, and pointing the one line at the ascertained 
N. point proceed to march along the other. 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 241 

The best direction to be obtained is this N. and S. 
line, but it is not the only possible one. It may be 
possible and convenient to do what is known as ' ' march- 
ing on a star." That is to say, a certain star is selected 
beforehand, and its bearings at given intervals, say of 
half an hour, are worked out in advance and noted down. 
If then the bearing of our destination is known, we have 
only to keep the right direction angles with the star at 
the right times to be following the line we require. The 
ways in which the necessary data can be obtained are 
clearly set forth in Major Tilney's " Rapid Night 
Marching Made Easy," and for a predetermined and 
properly planned and equipped night march this plan 
is satisfactory enough. 

— R. Weatherhead: The Star Pocket-Book. 



THE FIRST TELESCOPE 

In the present treatise I set forth some matters of 
great interest for all observers of natural phenomena to 
look at and consider. They are of great interest, I think, 
first, from their intrinsic excellence ; secondly, from their 
absolute novelty; and lastly, also on account of the 
instrument by the aid of which they have been presented 
to my apprehension. 

The number of the Fixed Stars which observers have 
been able to see without artificial powers of sight up 
to this day can be counted. It is, therefore, decidedly 
a great feat to add to their number, and to set distinctly 
before the eyes other stars in myriads, which have never 
been seen before, and which surpass the old, previously 
known, stars in number more than ten times. 



242 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

Again, it is a most beautiful and delightful sight 
to behold the body of the Moon, which is distant from 
us nearly sixty semi-diameters of the Earth, as near as 
if it was at a distance of only two of the same meas- 
ures; so that the diameter of this same Moon appears 
about thirty times larger, its surface about nine hun- 
dred times, and its solid mass nearly twenty-seven thou- 
sand times larger than when it is viewed only with the 
naked eye; and consequently any one may know with 
the certainty that is due to the use of our senses, that 
the Moon certainly does not possess a smooth and pol- 
ished surface, but one rough and uneven, and, just like 
the face of the Earth itself, is everywhere full of vast 
protuberances, deep chasms, and sinuosities. 

Then, to have got rid of disputes about the Galaxy 
or Milky Way, and to have made its nature clear to the 
very senses, not to say to the understanding, seems by 
no means a matter which ought to be considered of 
slight importance. In addition to this, to point out, as 
with one's finger, the nature of these stars which every 
one of the astronomers up to this time has called 
nebulous, and to demonstrate that it is very different 
from what has hitherto been believed, will be pleasant, 
and very fine. But that which will excite the greatest 
astonishment by far, and which, indeed, especially 
moved me to call the attention of all astronomers and 
philosophers, is this, namely, that I have discovered 
four planets, neither known nor observed by any one 
of the astronomers before my time, which have their 
orbits round a certain bright star, one of those previ- 
ously known, like Venus and Mercury round the Sun, 
and are sometimes in front of it, sometimes behind it, 
though they never depart from it beyond certain limits. 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 243 

All which facts were discovered and observed a few 
days ago by the help of a telescope devised by me, 
through God's grace first enlightening my mind. 

Perhaps other discoveries still more excellent will be 
made from time to time by me or by other observers, 
with the assistance of a similar instrument, so I will 
first briefly record its shape and preparation, as well as 
the occasion of its being devised, and then I will give 
an account of the observations made by me. 

About ten months ago a report reached my ears that 
a Dutchman had constructed a telescope, by the aid of 
which visible objects, although at a great distance from 
the eye of the observer, were seen distinctly as if near; 
and some proofs of its most wonderful performances 
were reported, which some gave credence to, but others 
contradicted. A few days after, I received confirma- 
tion of the report in a letter written from Paris by a 
noble Frenchman, Jaques Badovere, which finally deter- 
mined me to give myself up first to inquire into the 
principle of the telescope, and then to consider the 
means by which I might compass the invention of a 
similar instrument, which a little while after I suc- 
ceeded in doing, through deep study of the theory of 
Refraction ; and I prepared a tube, at first of lead, in the 
ends of which I fitted two glass lenses, both plane on 
one side, but on the other side one spherically convex, 
and the other concave. Then bringing my eye to the 
concave lens I saw objects satisfactorily large and near, 
for they appeared one-third of the distance off, and nine 
times larger than when they are seen with the natural 
eye alone. I shortly afterwards constructed another 
telescope with more nicety, which magnified objects more 
than sixty times. At length, by sparing neither labor 



244 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

nor expense, I succeeded in constructing for myself an 
instrument so superior that objects seen through it 
appear magnified nearly a thousand times, and more 
than thirty times nearer than if viewed by the natural 
powers of sight alone. 

It would be altogether a waste of time to enumerate 
the number and importance of the benefits which this 
instrument may be expected to confer, when used by 
land or sea. But without paying attention to its use 
for terrestrial objects, I betook myself to observations 
of the heavenly bodies; and first of all, I viewed the 
Moon as near as if it was scarcely two semi-diameters 
of the Earth distant. After the Moon, I frequently ob- 
served other heavenly bodies, both fixed stars and 
planets, with incredible delight. . . . 

Let me speak first of the surface of the Moon, which 
is turned towards us. For the sake of being understood 
more easily, I distinguish two parts in it, which I call 
respectively the brighter and darker. The brighter part 
seems to surround and pervade the whole hemisphere; 
but the darker part, like a sort of cloud, discolors the 
Moon's surface and makes it appear covered with spots. 
Now these spots, as they are somewhat dark and of 
considerable size, are plain to every one, and every age 
has seen them, wherefore I shall call them great or 
ancient spots, to distinguish them from other spots, 
smaller in size, but so thickly scattered that they sprinkle 
the whole surface of the Moon, but especially the 
brighter portion of it. These spots have never been ob- 
served by any one before me; and from my observa- 
tions of them, often repeated, I have been led to that 
opinion which I have expressed, namely, that I feel sure 
that the surface of the Moon is not perfectly smooth, free 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 245 

from inequalities and exactly spherical, as a large school 
of philosophers considers with regard to the Moon and 
the other heavenly bodies, but that, on the contrary, it is 
full of inequalities, uneven, full of hollows and pro- 
tuberances, just like the surface of the Earth itself, 
which is varied everywhere by lofty mountains and deep 
valleys. . . . 

There is one other point which I must on no account 
forget, which I have noticed and rather wondered at. 
It is this : — The middle of the Moon, as it seems, is oc- 
cupied by a certain cavity larger than all the rest, and in 
shape perfectly round. I have looked at this depression 
near both the first and third quarters. ... It produces 
the same appearance as to effects of light and shade as 
a tract like Bohemia would produce on the Earth, if it 
were shut in on all sides by very lofty mountains ar- 
ranged on the circumference of a perfect circle ; for the 
tract in the Moon is walled in with peaks of such 
enormous height that the furthest side adjacent to the 
dark portion of the Moon is seen bathed in sunlight be- 
fore the boundary between light and shade reaches half- 
way across the circular space. But, according to the 
characteristic property of the rest of the spots, the 
shaded portion of this, too, faces the Sun, and the bright 
part is towards the dark side of the Moon, which for 
the third time I advise to be carefully noticed as a 
most solid proof of the ruggednesses and unevennesses 
spread over the whole of the bright region of the Moon. 
Of these spots, moreover, the darkest are always those 
which are near to the boundary-line between the light 
and the shadow, but those further off appear both 
smaller in size and less decidedly dark ; so that at length, 
when the Moon at opposition becomes full, the darkness 



246 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

of the cavities differs from the brightness of the prom- 
inences with a snbdued and very slight difference. . . . 
Hitherto I have spoken of the observations which I 
have made concerning the Moon's body; now I will 
briefly announce the phenomena which have been, as yet, 
seen by me with reference to the Fixed Stars. And first 
of all, the following fact is worthy of consideration: 
the stars, fixed as well as erratic, when seen with a tele- 
scope, by no means appear to be increased in magnitude 
in the same proportion as other objects, and the Moon 
herself, gain increase of size; but in the case of the 
stars such increase appears much less, so that you may 
consider that a telescope, which (for the sake of il- 
lustration) is powerful enough to magnify other objects 
a hundred times, will scarcely render the stars magnified 
four or five times. But the reason of this is as follows : 
when stars are viewed with our natural eyesight they 
do not present themselves to us of their bare, real size, 
but beaming with a certain vividness, and fringed with 
sparkling rays, especially when the night is far ad- 
vanced; and from this circumstance they appear much 
larger than they would if they were stripped of those 
adventitious fringes, for the angle which they subtend 
at the eye is determined not by the primary disk of the 
star, but by the brightness which so widely surrounds it. 
Perhaps you will understand this most clearly from the 
well-known circumstance that when stars rise just at 
sunset, in the beginning of twilight, they appear very 
small, although they may be stars of the first magnitude ; 
and even the planet Venus itself, on any occasion when 
it may present itself to view in broad daylight, is so 
small to see that it scarcely seems to equal a star of the 
last magnitude. It is different in the case of other ob- 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 247 

jects, and even of the Moon, which, whether viewed in 
the light of midday or in the depth of night, always ap- 
pear of the same size. "We conclude therefore that the 
stars are seen at midnight in uncurtailed glory, but their 
fringes are of such a nature that the daylight can cut 
them off, and not only daylight, but any slight cloud 
which may be interposed between a star and the eye of 
the observer. A dark veil or colored glass has the same 
effect, for, upon placing them before the eye between 
it and the stars, all the blaze that surrounds them leaves 
them at once. A telescope also accomplishes the same 
result, for it removes from the stars their adventitious 
and accidental splendors before it enlarges their true 
disks (if, indeed, they are of that shape), and so they 
seem less magnified than other objects, for a star of the 
fifth or sixth magnitude seen through a telescope is 
shown as of the first magnitude only. 

The difference between the appearance of the planets 
and the fixed stars seems also deserving of notice. The 
planets present their disks perfectly round, just as if 
described with a pair of compasses, and appear as so 
many little moons, completely illuminated and of a 
globular shape; but the fixed stars do not look to the 
naked eye bounded by a circular circumference, but 
rather like blazes of light, shooting out beams on all 
sides and very sparkling, and with a telescope they 
appear of the same shape as when they are viewed by 
simply looking at them, but so much larger that a star 
of the fifth or sixth magnitude seems to equal Sirius, 
the largest of all the fixed stars. 

But beyond the stars of the sixth magnitude you 
will behold through the telescope a host of other stars, 
which escape the unassisted sight, so numerous as to be 



248 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

almost beyond belief, for you may see more than six 
other differences of magnitude, and the largest of these, 
which I may call stars of the seventh magnitude, or of 
the first magnitude of invisible stars, appear with the 
aid of the telescope larger and brighter than stars 
of the second magnitude seen with the unassisted 
sight. . . . 

The next object which I have observed is the essence 
or substance of the Milky Way. By the aid of a tele- 
scope any one may behold this in a manner which so 
distinctly appeals to the senses that all the disputes 
which have tormented philosophers through so many 
ages are exploded at once by the irrefragable evidence 
of our eyes, and we are freed from wordy disputes upon 
this subject, for the Galaxy is nothing else but a mass 
of innumerable stars planted together in clusters. Upon 
whatever part of it you direct the telescope, straightway 
a vast crowd of stars presents itself to view; many of 
them are tolerably large and extremely bright, but the 
number of small ones is quite beyond determina- 
tion. 

And whereas that milky brightness, like the brightness 
of a white cloud, is not only to be seen in the Milky Way, 
but several spots of a similar color shine faintly here and 
there in the heavens, if you turn the telescope upon 
any of them you will find a cluster of stars packed close 
together. Further, — and you will be more surprised at 
this, — the stars which have been called by every one of 
the astronomers up to this day nebulous, are groups of 
small stars set thick together in a wonderful way, and 
although each one of them, on account of its smallness, 
or its immense distance from us, escapes our sight, from 
the commingling of their rays there arises that bright- 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 249 

ness which has hitherto been believed to be the denser 
part of the heavens, able to reflect the rays of the stars 
or the Sun. . . . 

I have now finished my brief account of the observations 
which I have thus far made with regard to the Moon, the 
Fixed Stars, and the Galaxy. There remains the matter, 
which seems to me to deserve to be considered the most 
important in this work, namely, that I should disclose and 
publish to the world the occasion of discovering and ob- 
serving four PLANETS, never seen from the very be- 
ginning of the world up to our own times, their positions, 
and the observations made during the last two months 
about their movements and their changes of magnitude ; 
and I summon all astronomers to apply themselves to 
examine and determine their periodic times, which it has 
not been permitted me to achieve up to this day, owing 
to the restriction of my time. I give them warning, 
however, again, so that they may not approach such an 
inquiry to no purpose, that they will want a very ac- 
curate telescope, and such as I have described in the 
beginning of this account. 

On the 7th day of January in the present year, 
1610, in the first hour of the following night, when I was 
viewing the constellations of the heavens through a tele- 
scope, the planet Jupiter presented itself to my view, 
and as I had prepared for myself a very excellent instru- 
ment, I noticed a circumstance which I had never been 
able to notice before, owing to want of power in my 
other telescope, namely, that three little stars, small but 
very bright, were near the planet; and although I be- 
lieved them to belong to the number of fixed stars, yet 
they made me somewhat wonder, because they seemed 
to be arranged exactly in a straight line, parallel to the 



250 THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 

ecliptic, and to be brighter than the rest of the stars, 
equal to them in magnitude. 

On the east side there were two stars, and a single one 
on the west. The star which was furthest towards the 
east, and the western star, appeared rather larger than 
the third. 

I scarcely troubled at all about the distance between 
them and Jupiter, for, as I have already said, at first I 
believed them to be fixed stars; but when, on January 
8th, led by some fatality, I turned again to look at the 
same part of the heavens, I found a very different state 
of things, for there were three little stars all west of 
Jupiter, and nearer together than on the previous night, 
and they were separated from one another by equal in- 
tervals. 

At this point, although I had not turned my thoughts 
at all upon the approximation of the stars to one an- 
other, yet my surprise began to be excited, how Jupiter 
could one day be found to the east of all the aforesaid 
fixed stars, when the day before it had been west of two 
of them; and forthwith I became afraid lest the planet 
might have moved differently from the calculation of 
astronomers, and so had passed those stars by its own 
proper motion. I, therefore, waited for the next night 
with the most intense longing, but I was disappointed of 
my hope, for the sky was covered with clouds in every 
direction. 

But on January 10th the stars appeared in the follow- 
ing position with regard to Jupiter; there were two 
only, and both on the east side of Jupiter, the third, as I 
thought, being hidden by the planet. They were situ- 
ated just as before, exactly in the same straight line with 
Jupiter, and along the Zodiac. 



ASTRONOMY THROUGH THE AGES 251 

When I had seen these phenomena, as I knew that 
corresponding changes of position could not by any 
means belong to Jupiter, and as, moreover, I perceived 
that the stars which I saw had always been the same, 
for there were no others either in front or behind, within 
a great distance, along the Zodiac, — at length changing 
from doubt into surprise, I discovered that the inter- 
change of position which I saw belonged not to Jupiter, 
but to the stars to which my attention had been drawn, 
and I thought, therefore, that they ought to be observed 
henceforward with more attention and precision. 

— Galileo Galilei: The Astronomical Messen- 
ger, translated by E. S. Carlos. 



APPENDIX 

THE MAGNITUDES 

By the magnitude of a star we mean its apparent bright- 
ness, and not its size or its nearness to the earth. Alpha 
Centauri, the fixed star nearest to us, is surpassed in bright- 
ness by several stars. When the stars were first classed into 
magnitudes, our fine astronomical instruments had not been 
invented, and all the visible stars, from the brilliant Sirius 
to the tiniest sixth-magnitude stars, were arranged in six 
magnitudes. It was not possible with the naked eye to make 
finer distinctions. Now we can make much more accurate 
classifications. Each magnitude has only f as much light 
as the magnitude above it — that is, a star of standard third 
magnitude sends us only -| as much light as one of standard 
second magnitude. The gradation of light between the differ- 
ent magnitudes is expressed by the tenth of decimal fractions. 
The stars within ^ of a magnitude are included within this 
magnitude. Aldebaran is 1.0, a standard first-magnitude star. 
Deneb is 1.4, still a first-magnitude star. All stars from 1.6 
to 2.5 are second-magnitude stars. This is the case with all 
the magnitudes excepting the first. It was found that nine 
of the twenty first-magnitude stars were brighter than 1.0, 
reaching through nearly two magnitudes of brightness. So, 
although we speak of all of them as first-magnitude stars, 
those from 1.5 to 0.6 are first magnitude, those 0.5 to — 0.5 are 
designated zero magnitudes, and all brighter are called stars 
brighter than zero magnitude. By making a list of the magni- 
tude numbers and the decimals between them, you can easily 
draw lines at the points where one magnitude merges into 
another, and this will help you to understand. 

253 



254 



THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 



There are only two stars brighter than zero magnitude, 
Canopus — 0.8 and Sirius— 1.4. Thus Sirius is half a mag- 
nitude brighter than any other star, and is nearly two mag- 
nitudes brighter than Capella, one of the three brightest stars 
in the northern hemisphere. Four of the first stars — Canopus, 
Alpha Centauri, Beta Centauri, and Alpha Crucis — are too 
far to the south to be seen from our northern latitudes, and 
are not on our northern charts. 

The following list will give you the magnitudes of the first- 
magnitude stars as compiled by the journal Popular Astron- 
omy in its star charts. 

STARS OF THE FIRST MAGNITUDE 



A. Stars brighter 


THAN 


C. Stars of 1st Magnitude 


Magnitude 






Name 


Magni- 


Name Magni- 




tude 


tude 


a Canis Majoris (Sirius) — 1.4 


a Tauri (Aldebaran) 1.0 


a Argi (Canopus) 


— 0.8 


a Orionis (Betelgeuse) 0.9 


B. Stars of Magnitude 


ft Geminorum (Pollux) 1.2 
a Leonis (Begulus) 1.3 


a Eridani (Achernar) 


0.4 


a Crucis 1.0 


a Aurigae (Capella) 


0.1 


a Virginis (Spica) 1.1 


ft Orionis (Big el) 


0.3 


ft Centauri 0.7 


a Canis Minoris 




a Scorpii (Antares) 1.2 


(Procyon) 


0.5 


a Aquilae (Altair) 0.9 


a Bootis (Arcturus) 


0.2 


a Cygni (Deneb or Arided) 1.4 


a Centauri 


0.2 


a Piscis Australis 


a Lyrae (Vega) 


0.2 


(Fomalhaut) 1.3 



STAR NAMES 



The people of ancient times gave names to almost all the 
brighter stars. There is no first magnitude star in the northern 



APPENDIX 255 

hemisphere that does not have an individual name. There 
are three first-magnitude stars far south that do not have 
individual names, but they were probably not known to the 
ancients. Each name is supposed to have had in the begin- 
ning a special significance, and some of them still retain their 
meaning; Denebola, for example, means the tail of the Lion. 

Early in the seventeenth century a plan was adopted of 
designating the stars in each constellation by using the Genitive 
form of the Latin name of the constellation as a family name, 
and the letters of the Greek alphabet for the individual names. 
Thus Vega in Lyra is Alpha Lyrae. The Greek letters are 
assigned to the stars almost always according to the relative 
magnitudes of the stars in a constellation. One of the few 
exceptions to this rule is in Gemini. The Twin Pollux is 
brighter than Castor, yet Castor is called Alpha Geminorum, 
and Pollux Beta Geminorum. The brightness of Castor is 
diminishing as it recedes from us; it is possible that when 
they were given their Greek letter " Christian names," Castor 
may have been the brighter. 

Sometimes clusters of stars inside a constellation have 
names; as the Pleiades and Hyades in Taurus, and the 
Praesepe in Cancer. 

The following list gives the names of about thirty of the 
best-known stars and the astronomical designation of each. 



INDIVIDUAL STAR NAMES 

Name Other Designation 

Albireo /3 Cygni 

Alcor g Ursae Majoris 



Aldebaran a Tauri 

Algenib y Pegasi 

Algol fi Persei 

Alpheratz a Andromedae 



256 



THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 



Altair 


a 


Aquilae 


Antares 


a 


Scorpii 


Areturus 


a 


Bootis 


Bellatrix 


Y 


Orionis 


Betelgeuse 


a 


Orionis 


Canopus 


a 


Argi 


Capella 


a 


Aurigae 


Castor 


a 


Geminorum 


Cynosura 


a 


Ursae Minoris 


Deneb 


a 


Cygni 


Denebola 


fi 


Leonis 


Dubhe 


a 


Ursae Majoris 


Fomalhaut 


a 


Piseis Australis 


Hyades 




Group in Taurus 


Markab 


a 


Pegasi 


Mizar 


i 


Ursae Majoris 


El Nath 


ft 


Tauri 


Pleiades 




Group in Taurus 


Alcyone 


V 


Tauri 


Polaris 


a 


Ursae Minoris 


Pollux 


P 


Geminorum 


Praesepe 




Cluster in Cancer 


Procyon 


a 


Canis Minoris 


Regulus 


a 


Leonis 


Rigel 


/3 


Orionis 


Sirius 


a 


Canis Majoris 


Spica 


a 


Virginis 


Vega 


a 


Lyrae 







APPENDIX 










GREEK ALPHABET 




Letters 


i Names 


Letter 


3 Names 


Letters 


Names 


A a ' 


Alpha 


I i 


Iota 


Pp 


Rho 


Bfi 


Beta 


K K 


Kappa 


2 a $ 


Sigma 


r r 


Gamma 


A X 


Lambda 


Tr 


Tau 


A S 


Delta 


M> 


Mu 


Tv 


Upsilon 


E 6 


Epsilon 


N v 


Nu 


(f> cp 


Phi 


z i 


Zeta 


nz 


Xi 


x x 


Chi 


H T} 


Eta 


O o 


Omicron 


Wi/> 


Psi 


® 6 


Theta 


Uit 


Pi 


£1 CD 


Omega 



257 



COMPOUND REFERENCE CHART 

\ i 

Andrpmeda^ ^ j 

i 

Perseus N 




Cassiopeia 




CygnusV^*' 



"\ \ 
\ // 

Little ^Polaris 



/ juittie X/Tv 



'f Auriga 



The Twins--- 




Spica 



MAPS OF THE STARS 



259 




South. 

Fig. 214. 

The sky on November 22, at 12 o'clock p.m. 
December 6, at 11 o'clock p.m. 
December 21, at 10 o'clock p.m. 
January 5, at 9 o'clock p.m. 
January 20, at 8 o'clock p.m. 



260 



THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 




The sky on January 20, at 12 o'clock P.M. 
February 4, at 11 o'clock p.m. 
February 19, at 10 o'clock p.m. 
March 6, at 9 o'clock p.m. 
March 21, at 8 o'clock p.m. 



MAPS OF THE STARS 



261 




The sky on March 21, at 12 o'clock p.m. 
April 5, at 11 o'clock p.m. 
April 20, at 10 o'clock p.m. 
May 5, at 9 o'clock p.m. 
May 21, at 8 o'clock p.m. 



262 



THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 




The sky on May 21. at 12 o'clock p.m. 
June 5, at 11 o'clock p.m. 
June 21, at 10 o'clock p.m. 
July 7, at 9 o'clock p.m. 
July 22, at 8 o'clock p.m. 



MAPS OF THE STARS 



263 




The sky on July 22, at 12 o'clock p.m. 

August 7, at 11 o'clock p m. 
August 23, at 10 o'clock p.m. 
September 8, at 9 o'clock p.m. 
September 23, at 8 o'clock p.m. 



264 



THE STARS AND THEIR STORIES 




The sky on September 23, at 12 o'clock p.m. 
October 8, at 11 o'clock p.m. 
October 23, at 10 o'clock p.m. 
November 7, at 9 o'clock p.m. 
November 22, at 8 o'clock p.m. 



INDEX AND GLOSSARY 



J 



INDEX AND GLOSSARY 



Achilles (a-kil'-ez), 217 
Acrisius (a-kris'-i-us), 63, 64, 

74 
Admetus ( ad-me'-tus ) , 160 
Adrian main (Adriatic sea), 

132, 133 
Aebutius Elva (e-bti'-ti-us), 

120 ff 
Aegean (sea), 151, 188 
Aegeus (e'-jus), 183-189 
Aegis (e'-jis), Minerva's shield, 

69 
Aeolian lyre, a harp that 

sounds when a wind blows 

upon its strings, 46 
Aether, see Ether 
Aethra (e'-thra), 177, 184, 189 
Africa, 71, 164, 207 
Albireo (al-bir'-e-o), 48 
Alcestis (al-ses'-tis), 160 
Alcor, 14 

Alcyone (al-si'-o-ne), 99 
Aldebaran (al-deb'-a-ran), 98, 

113, 143, 253 
Alectryon (a-lek'-tri-on), a do- 
mestic cock, 40 
Alexander the Great, 145 
Alexandria, city in Egypt, 114 
Algol, 62, 76 
Alpha Centauri, 253, 254 
Alpha Crucis, 254 
Alpha Geminorum (jem-i-no'- 

rum), 255 
Alpha Lyrae, 255 
Alphabet (Greek), 257 
Alpherat ( al-f e-rat' ) , or Al* 

pherats, 61 
Alphecca (al-fek'-ka), 175 



Altair, 41, 47, 48 

Amaranth (am'-a-ranth), a 

fabulous flower supposed 

never to fade, 52 
Amazons, Queen of, 159 
Ambrosial (am-bro'-zhal), de- 
licious, sweet-smelling, 76, 

82 
Andromeda (an-drom'-e-da), 23, 

57-82, 191 
Anio (a'-ne-o), 133 
Antaeus (an-te'us), 164, 166 
Antares (an-ta' : rez), 143 
Anteia (an-te'-ya), 24 
Aphrodite" ( af -ro-dl'-te ) , see 

Venus 
Apollo, or Phoebus, 45, 47, 51, 

67, 81, 96, 192 
Aquarius (a-kwa'-ri-us), 152 
Aquila (a'-kwe-la), see Eagle 
Arabian, 100, 106, 234 
Aratus (a-ra'-tus), astronomer 

who lived about 270 B.C., 

144, 218 
Arcadia (ar-ka'-di-a), 50, 51 
Arcady (ar'-ka-di), same as 

Arcadia, 90 
Areas, 11-14 
Archimedes ( ar-ki-me'-dez ) , 

234 
Arician (a-rish'-i-an), Aricia 

was an ancient Latin town; 

modern Italian La Riccia, 

133 
Arctic Wain, see Bear (Great) 
Arcturus (ark-tu'-rus), 158, 

159, 161 
Ardea (ar'-de-a), 132 



267 



268 



INDEX AND GLOSSARY 



Argo, 83-107 

Argos, 63, 74, 78 

Ariadne (ar-i-ad'-ne), 175-192 

Ariadne's Crown, 151, 153-156, 
175-192 

Arided (ar'-i-ded), a Cygni, see 
Deneb 

Arion (a-ri'-on), 49 

Aristotle, 234 

Arnold, M., 12 

Arrow, 41-56 (esp. 48) 

Arsinoe (ar-sin'-o-e), 151 

Asia, 3 

Asphodel (as'-fo-del), a myth- 
ical flower covering the 
meadows of Hades, 81 

Asterope (as-ter'-o-pe), 99 

Astraea (as-tre'-il), 161 

Astraeus (as-tre'-us), 161 

Astrology, 100-101 

Athene (a-the'-ne) or Pallas, 
see Minerva 

Athenian, 188 

Athens, 177, 178, 183-191, 
218 

Athos, 151 

Atlas the Pleiad, 99 

Atlas the Giant, 71, 72, 91, 98, 
160, 166-174, 204 

Aufidus (a'-fi-dus), 126 

Augean (a'-je-an), 159 

Aulus (a'-lus), 118 ff 

Auriga (a-ri'-ga), 108-137 

Auster (as'-ter), 126 

Australian, 202, 203 

Babylonian, 100, 106 

Bacchantes (ba-kan'-tez), wom- 
en who celebrated the festi- 
vals of Bacchus, 189 

Bacchus (bak'-us), 98, 175, 
189-192 

Baldrick (bal'-drik), a belt, 
217 

Basilica (ba-sil'-i-ka), a 

church, 236 



Bears, Great and Little, 7-18, 
47, 61, 62, 143, 144, 149, 157, 
158, 161, 207, 218 

Beehive, see Manger 

Bellatrix (bel'-a-triks), 97 

Bellerophon (be-ler'-6-fon), 23- 
38 

Benetnasch ( be-net'-nash ) , 149 

Berenice's Hair (ber-e-m'-sez), 
147-152, 196 

Beta Centauri, 254 

Beta Geminorum, 255 

Betelgeuze (bet-el-gerz'), 97, 
113 

Bohemia, a province in Austria- 
Hungary, 210 miles long by 
170 miles wide, containing 
20,600 sq. miles, 245 

Bootes (bo-o'-tez), 152, 153- 
175 

Bull of Marathon, 184, 187 

Bushman, a South African ab- 
original tribe of low intelli- 
gence, 202, 203 

Caeso (se'-so), 122 

Cain, 205 

Caius Cossus (ka'-yus kos'- 

sus), 124 
Callisto (ka-lis'-to), 11-14, 152 
Calypso (ka-lip'-so), 157 
Campanile (kam-pa-ne'-le), a 

detached bell-tower, 236 
Cancer or the Crab, 139-145, 

255 
Canes Venatici (ka'-nez ve-nat'- 

i-si), see Hounds 
Canopus (ka-no'-pus), 99, 105- 

107, 254 
Capella (ka-pel'-a), 113, 158, 254 
Capuan (kap'-u-an), 130 
Capricorn, 102 
Cassiopeia (kas"-i-o-pe'-ya), 57- 

82, 191 
Castor (kas'-tor), 113-137, 255 
Caucasus (ka'-ka-sus), 160 



INDEX AND GLOSSARY 



Cedalion (se-da'-li-on), 95 

Celaeno (se-le'-no), 99 

Celtic, 132 

Centaurus (sen-ta'-rus), 193- 
197, 253 

Cepheus (se'-fus), 57-82 

Cerberus (ser'-be-rus), 160 

Cercyon (ser'-si-on), 180, 181, 
183 

Cetus ( se'-tus ) , 76 

Chaldeans (kal-de'-ans), 100 

Chalyb (kal'-ib), 151 

Charioteer, see Auriga 

Charles II, 157 

Charles's Wain, see Bears 

Chaucer, 205 

Chemin des Ames, Souls' High- 
way, 208 

Chimsera ( kl-me'-ra ) , 24-38 

Chinese, 100, 101, 158 

Chios (ki'-os), an island, 92 

Columbus, 226, 230, 238, 239 

Coma Berenices (ko'-ma ber-e- 
ni'-sez), see Berenice's Hair 

Conon (ko'-non), 150 

Constellation, definition, 4 

Copernicus (ko-per'-ni-kus), as- 
tronomer, 1473-1543 a.d., 
143, 218, 226, 235, 238 

Cor Caroli (kor kar'-o-li), 157- 
159 

Corona Borealis (ko-ro'-na. bo- 
re-a'-lis), see Ariadne's 
Crown 

Corroboree (ko-rob-o-re'), an 
Australian war-dance, 206 

Cracow (kra'-ko), a city in 
Austria-Hungary, 238 

Crete (kret), 185, 188 

Croft, a small piece of inclosed 
ground, 105 

Cross, see Northern Cross and 
Southern Cross 

Cyclops (si'-klops), 95 

Cygnus (sig'-nus), see Swan 

Cyrene (si-re'-ne), 131 



Dacotah, 207 

Danae (dan'-a-e), 63-75 

Dante (dan'-te), 205, 236 

David's Chariot, see Bears 

December's Nones (nonz), De- 
cember the fifth, 116 

Delphinus (del-fi'-nus), see 
Dolphin 

Demon Star, see Algol 

Deneb (den'-eb) or Arided, 41, 
48, 253 

Denebola (de-neb'-o-la), 143, 
149, 158, 255 

Diana (di-an'-a), 96 

Dipper, Big and Little, see 
Bears 

Dog Star, see Sirius 

Dolphin, 41-56 (esp. 48-49), 
197 

Dorian, 136 

Dormouse (dor'-mous), an ani- 
mal of squirrel-like appear- 
ance about the size of the 
common house-mouse, 203 

Eagle, 41-56 

Earth (planet), 3, 208, 215, 
217, 218, 242, 244, 245 

Eastern, Asiatic, 207 

Ecliptic (e-klip'-tik), the ap- 
parent path of the sun 
among the stars, see frontis- 
piece, 143 

Egypt, 3, 98, 151, 164, 218 

Egyptian, 100, 149, 199 

Electra ( e-lek'-tra ) , 99 

El Nath, 113 

Empyrean (em-pi-re'-an), the 
highest heaven, where the 
pure element of fire was sup- 
posed by the ancients to ex- 
ist, 223 

Eridanus (e-rid'-a-nus), a river, 
48 

Eskimo, 206 



270 



INDEX AND GLOSSARY 



Ether, the upper air, the blue 
heavens, or a substance more 
refined than air, 82, 191, 
214 
Ethiop Memnon, 151 
Eudoxus (u-dok'-sus), 218 
Europa (u-ro'-pa), 102 
Eurotas (ti-ro'-tas), 131 
Eurydice (u-rid'-i-se), 45-56 
Eurystheus (u-ris'-thus), 143, 

144, 159 

Falchion (fal'-chon), a sword, 
77 

Fiesole (fe-a'-so-le), a town in 
Italy, 236, 237 

Florence, a city in Italy, 235, 
236 

Fomalhaut (fo'-mal-o), 143 

Forum (fo'-rum), the market- 
place or chief public square 
of a Roman city, 115 

Franklin, B., 238 

Frisian, Frisia is a northern 
province in Holland, 205 

Galaxy, 208, 242, 248, 249 
Galileo (gal-i-le'-6), astron- 
omer, 1564-1642 a.d., 144, 

145, 218, 235-239 

Galley, a sea-going boat pro- 
pelled by oars, 79 

Ganymede (gan'-i-med), 47 

Gaza (ga'-za), 103 

Gemini (jem'-i-m), Latin for 
Twins, 108-138, 144, 196, 
255 

German, 205-207 

Gibeon, 202 

Gnossus (nos'-us), 191 

Goat, see Capella 

Golden Fleece, 99 

Gorgons, 66, 70, 71 (and see 
Medusa ) 

Graeae (gre'-e), 68-71 

Greece, 100 



Greek, 11, 23, 94, 114, 175, 199, 

204, 206 
Greek alphabet, 257 
Greenland, 204, 207 
Grimm, 206 
Guardians of Heaven (Four), 

143 

Hades (ha'-dez), the realm of 
the dead, also sometimes 
called hell, 46, 54, 55, 114, 
160 

Halcyon (hal'-si-on), a bird fa- 
bled to lay its eggs in a nest 
that floated on the sea about 
the time of the winter sol- 
stice, and to have power to 
bring calm weather, 189 

Halley, astronomer, 1656-1742 
A.D., 157 

Hamadryad ( ham"-a-dri'-ad ) , 
192 

Hare, see Lepus 

Hawthorne, N., 25 

Hebe (he'-be), 47 

Helicon (hel'-i-kon), a moun- 
tain, 26, 29 

Hera (he'-ra), see Juno 

Heraclidean ( her-a-kli'-de-an ) , 
pertaining to the descendants 
of Hercules, 103 

Herakles (her'-a-klez) or Her- 
cules (her'-ku-lez), 143-145, 
153-175, 197, 207 

Hermes (her'-mez), see Mer- 
cury 

Herminia, 129 

Herminius, 125 

Herschel (her'-shel), two as- 
tronomers, Sir W., 1738- 
1822, and his son, Sir J. F. 
W., 1792-1871 A.D., 238 

Hesperides (hes-per'-i-dez), 160, 
163-174 

Himalayas, 204 



INDEX AND GLOSSARY 



271 



Hipparchus (hi-par'-kus), as- 
tronomer, about 160-125 B.C., 
234 

Hippocrene (hip'-6-kren), 31, 
197 

Homer, 11, 114, 144, 157, 217 

Hounds or Canes Venatici, 102, 
157 

Housatonic Indians, 207 

Hyades (hi'-a-dez), 98, 218, 
255 

Hydra, 103, 145, 166 

Hymen, 190 

Icelandic, 205 

Ida, Idalian (adj.), a mountain 

range in Asia Minor, 79, 82 
Ides of Quintilis (Idz), July 

fifteenth, 116 
Iliad, 217 
Indian, American, 203, 204, 

207, 208 
Iobates (i-o'-ba-tez), 30, 36 
Iphitus (if'-i-tus), 159 
Ishmaelitish, see 21st and 25th 

chapters of Genesis, 105 
Islam, Mohammedanism, 207 
Italy, 49, 98 

Jack and Jill, 205 

Jarls (yarls), Scandinavian 

for noblemen, 102 
Jason, 99 

Jerusalem (New), 207 
Job's Coffin, see Dolphin 
Joshua, see 10th chapter of 

Joshua, 202 
Jove, see Jupiter 
Julian, 225 
Juno or Hera, 11, 122, 145, 159, 

207 
Jupiter or Jove or Zeus, 11, 24, 

45, 47, 88, 89, 98, 102, 114, 

150, 151, 162, 191 
Jupiter the planet, 3, 100, 145, 

206, 214, 215, 237 



Kasir, 206 

Kepler (kep'-ler), astronomer, 

1571-1630 a.d., 235 
Khasias, 204 

Labyrinth, a maze, 186, 187 
Latmos, a mountain range in 

Asia Minor, 150 
Laurentum, 133 
Lemnos, an island, 95 
Leo (le'-o) Major and Leo 

Minor, the Greater and Lesser 

Lions, 4, 102, 139-145, 147, 

149, 152, 153, 162 
Lepus (le'-pus) or Hare, 83-107 
Lesbos, an island, 49 
Lernaean marshes ( ler-ne'-an ) , 

near Argolis in Greece, 103, 

145, 159 
Leverrier ( le-va-rya' ) , a French 

scientist, 1811-1877 a.d., 238 
Libya (lib'-ia), 71 
Light, velocity of, 195 
Lions, see Leo 
Lithuanian, 208 
Little Dipper, see Bears 
Lotus, a plant fabled to make 

one who eats it forgetful of 

his past and unwilling to 

travel farther, 52 
Lucumon, a prince or priest, 

236 
Lycaon (li-ka'-on), 152 
Lycia (lis'-i-a), 24, 31, 32 
Lydian (lid'-i-an), 160 
Lyra (li'-ra) or Lyre, 41-56, 

159, 197 

Macedonia (mas'-e-do-ni-a), 218 

Magnitude, definition of, 253 

Maia (ma'-ya), 99 

Maiden, see Virgo 

Mamilius, 125 

Manacieas (ma-na-se'-kas), an 
Indian tribe of Bolivia in the 
seventeenth century, 202 



272 



INDEX AND GLOSSARY 



Manger or Praesepe, 142-145 

Marathon, 184, 187 

Mars the God, 106, 115, 137 

Mars the planet, 3 

Martian kalends, March the 

first, 116 
Medea (me-de'-a), 183, 184 
Medus (me'-dus), 183 
Medusa (me-do'-sa), 23, 62, 

65-74 
Memnon, 151 
Mentz, Mainz, in Germany, 

238 
Mercury or Hermes, 45, 50, 66- 

68 
Mercury the planet, 100, 242 
Merope_(mer'-o-pe), 92-96, 99, 

206 
Michael Angelo, 236 
Milky Way or Galaxy, 207, 208, 

248 
Milton, 218, 237 
Minerva or Athene" or Pallas, 

24, 69, 70, 77, 81, 184 
Minos (mf-nos), 185-188, 191 
Minotaur (min'-o-tar), 185- 

188, 191 
Mira (mf-ra), 76 
Mizar (mi'-zar), 14 
Moly (mo'-li), a fabulous herb, 

mentioned by Homer, 52 
Moon, 202-204, 206, 211, 215, 

237, 241, 242, 244-247, 249 
Moses, see the 15th chapter of 
Numbers, 204 

Najad (na'-yad), 192 

Names of stars, how given, 254- 

257 
Naxos (nak'-sos), an island, 

187-189, 191, 192 
Nebula (neb'-u-la), a luminous 

patch in the heavens, 98 
Nemaean (ne-me'-an) Lion, 143- 

144, 159 
Neptune, 13, 23, 71 



Nereid (ne'-re-id), a sea-nymph, 

81 
Newcomb, S., astronomer, 1837- 

1909 A.D., 99, 113 
Newton, scientist, 1642-1727 

A.D., 238 
North Star or Polaris, 15-17, 

23, 61, 83, 113, 159 
Northern Cross, see Cygnus 
Northern Crown, see Ariadne's 

Crown 

Odyssey (od'-i-si), 157 
Oenopion (e-no'-pi-on), 92-95 
Ogre (o'-ger), a giant or hid- 
eous monster supposed to live 
on human flesh, 182 
Old Man of the Sea, 163, 164 
Olympus, 11, 24, 45, 81, 82, 

191 
Orchomenian ( 6r-ko-me'-ni-an ) , 

192 
Orion (6-ri'-on), 83-108, 113, 

152, 196, 206, 218, 223 
Orion Group, 83-107 
Orpheus (or'-fus), 45-56 
Ortygia (or-tij'-i-a), 192 
Ottawa, 207 

Pallas, see Minerva 

Paphia (pa'-fi-a) or Venus, 

190, 191 
Patagonian, 207 
Pegasus (peg'-a-sus) or the 

Winged Horse, 18-40, 48, 57, 

61, 71, 197 
Peking, 101 
Pelias (pe'-li-as), 183 
Perseus (per'-sus), 23, 57-83, 

97, 159, 191 
Persian, 100, 205 
Phaethon (fa'-e-thon), 47, 48 
Pharos (fa'-ros), a lighthouse 

on the island of Pharos, and 

one of the seven wonders of 

the world, 231 



INDEX AND GLOSSARY 



273 



Phoebus (fe'-bus), see Apollo 
Pickering, Prof., 1846 — a.d., 

219 
Pirene (pl-re'-ne), 25, 26 
Pleiades (pli'-a-dez), 83, 86, 90- 

92, 97-99, 113, 157, 196, 206, 

218, 219, 255 
Pleione (pli'-o-ne), 99 
Plowshare or Great Bear, 14 
Pluto, 46, 48, 160 
Po, a river in Italy, 126, 132 
Pointers, 15, 23, 113 
Polaris (po-la'-ris) or Pole 

Star, see North Star 
Pollux, 113-137, 255 
Polydectes (pol-i-dek'-tez), 65- 

75 
Polynesian, 202 
Pontiff, a chief priest, or the 

Pope, 134, 225 
Pope, A., 223 

Praesepe (pre-se'-pe) or Man- 
ger, 144, 145, 255 
Procrustes (pro-krus'-tez), 181- 

183 
Proetus (pre'-tus), 23, 24 
Prometheus ( pro-me'-thus ) , 

160, 203 
Ptolemv (tol'-e-mi), astrono- 
mer, 100-150 (?) a.d., 145, 

158, 218, 234 
Ptolemy, Euergetes, Egyptian 

king, died 222 B.C., 149 
Pulkova (pbT-ko-va), a city in 

Russia, 225 
Pythagoras ( pi-thag'-o-ras ) , 

about 582-500 B.C., 234 
Pythian ( pith'-i-an ) snake, 

from Pythius, a surname of 

Apollo, 52 

Quirinus (kwi-rf-nus) , 133 
Quoit, a flatfish ring of iron to 
be thrown in a game, 74 

Ra, 203 



Rainbow, 208 
Raphael, 236 
Regillus (re-jil'-us), a lake 

near Rome, 115-137 
Regulus ( reg'-u-lus ) , 143 
Rhamnusian ( ram-no'-zhan ) ,152 
Rigel (re'-jel), 97, 113, 159 
Roman, 100, 114, 199, 208 
Rosse, astronomer, 1800-1867 

a.d., 238 
Royal Family, a group of stars, 

57-82 
Royal Stars, the Four, 143 

Sabeans (sa-be'-anz), a people 

mentioned in the Bible, 106 
Sagitta (sa-jit'-a), see Arrow 
Samian (sa'-mi-an), a native 

of Samos or pertaining to 

Samos, 46 
Samoan, 204 
Samothracia (sam-o-thras'-ia), 

131 
Santa Croce (san-ta. kro'-che), 

236 
Saturn, a planet, 2, 100, 237 
Sciron (sl'-ron), 178, 180, 183 
Scorpion, 101 
Selish Indians, 204 
Sempronius Atratinus (sem- 

pro'-ni-us at-ra-tl'-nus ) , 120 ff 
Seriphus (se-ri'-fus), an island, 

64, 74 
Seven Oxen, 14 
Seven Sisters or Pleiades, 98 
Shakspere, 205 
Sicilian, 102 
Siren (si'-ren), one of the 

sister sea-nymphs who sang 

with magic power, 81 
Sirius (sir'-i-us) or Orion's 

Dog or the Dog Star, 83-107 

(esp. 97), 113, 143, 159, 247, 

253, 254 
Slavonic, 203, 204 
Southern Cross, 193-197 



274 



INDEX AND GLOSSARY 



Spectroscope, 220 

Spectrum, 220 

Spica (spi'-ka), 158 

St. Paul, 114 

Struve (stro'-ve), German-Rus- 
sian astronomer, 1793-1864 
a.d., 225 

Summer Triangle Group, 41-56 

Sun, 202-204, 206, 215, 217, 242, 
245, 249 

Swan or Cygnus, 4, 41-56, 197 

Syracuse, 131 

Tahitian, 203 

Tarentum, 131 

Taurus (ta'-rus), 83-107, 113, 
255 

Taygeta (ta-ij'-c *»), 99 

Telescope, the ..,219 

Tempe (tem'-pe), 90 

Tethys (te'-this), a sea-god- 
dess, 152 

Theseus (the'-sus), 177-192 

Thia (thf-a), 151 

Titian, 236 

Triton (tri'-ton), a sea-god, 
81 

Troezene (tre'-zen), 177, 184 

Troy, 47 

Twelve Labors of Hercules, 159 

Twins, see Gemini 

Tycho Brahe (tf-ko bra'-e), 



Danish astronomer, 1546-1601 
A.D., 235 

Ursa Major (er'-sa ma'-jor), 

see Bears 
Ursa Minor (ml'-nor), see Bears 

Valerius (va-le'-ri-us), 121 
Vega (ve'-ga), 41, 46, 47, 158, 

159, 255 
Velocity of light, 195 
Venus or Aphrodite^ 79-81, 90, 

106, 149, 151, 152, 190 
Venus the planet, 75, 76, 237, 

238, 242, 246 
Vesta, 132, 136 
Virgo or Virgin or Maiden, 152, 

157-174 (esp. 158, 159), 196 
Vulcan, 95 

Washington, G., 228 
Watling Street, 208 
Winged Horse, see Pegasus 

Yeoman (yo'-man), a retainer, 
guard, or servant, 123 

Zodiac (zo'-di-ak), a belt of 
twelve constellations, extend- 
ing about 8 degrees on each 
side of the ecliptic; see 
frontispiece, 103, 250, 251 



1 



APR 18 1»18 



